<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Leng: Ancient Ones by Harwin_Snow</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27741205">Leng: Ancient Ones</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harwin_Snow/pseuds/Harwin_Snow'>Harwin_Snow</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>War for the Eastern Dawn [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>A Song of Ice and Fire &amp; Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A Song of Ice and Fire References, Action/Adventure, Adventure &amp; Romance, Aegon Velaryon - Freeform, Assassination, Assassination Attempt(s), Assassination Plot(s), Battle, Conspiracy, Erotica, Game of Thrones-esque, God Empress of Leng, Inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire, Inspired by Game of Thrones, Leng - Freeform, Lovecraftian, Lovecraftian Erotica, Lovecraftian Monster(s), No Game of Thrones | A Song of Ice and Fire Knowledge Required, Original Character(s), Original Plot, Original setting, R'hllor - Freeform, Swordfighting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 19:26:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>122,559</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27741205</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harwin_Snow/pseuds/Harwin_Snow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Sothoryos.  18 moons since the destruction of the mines of Sothoryos, Aegon Velaryon still mourns his losses.  Wallowing anonymously in Leng, he finds himself tasked with quelling a conspiracy to remove those in power on the island, as the magistrate he is assigned to protect is attacked, and the God Empress of Leng is mysteriously assasinated.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>War for the Eastern Dawn [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2029282</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>1</p><p>His arms hung heavy at his sides, sitting hunched over the counter of the winesink, his hands gripped tightly around a wooden cup of what the locals called soku, a rice or grain drink that varied in potency from a normal ale or wine to a breath snatching strength like nothing he'd ever experienced. This cup was strong, but not as strong as he'd need to forget.</p><p>It had been six and ten moons, most of which he had spent rowing, drinking, sleeping, and remaining silent in his own thoughts. His own misery. Each night, he'd take his earnings and return some to wherever served drink, some nights not even taking as much as a bite of solid sustenance. He rarely mingled with either his fellow crewmates or the locals of any port or harbor he'd manage to reach, and if he did, it was out of necessity. He'd only ever nod or grunt, still foreign to the tongues of his superiors and shipmates, and when the crew sang to celebrate, he wouldn't do much more than lift his cup, acknowledge those around him enough to not draw unwanted attention, and continue drowning in the loss and guilt of his destiny. His life's purpose.</p><p>The red woman had left him shortly after bringing him back. His lungs still felt full of molten rock, though he was able to breathe and speak, he could hardly think or realize what was happening</p><p>His last moments came back to him first, as he remembered his struggled for life, even though he had almost resigned to the darkness. And as he scraped through that narrow cavern, he clung to the little hope left in his heart, as he fought to live for her. It is what she would have wanted, or so he was told and thought himself. Then the lava came, pushing him, surrounding him, and the hope that was left had extinguished. He suffocated into the darkness, slipping softly off into nothing.</p><p>Then he woke, a thick crust of onyx rock formed around him, to the kiss of his enemy, and the warm caress of her deity. His internal flame was reignited, and his destiny was said to be far from finished. In those first moments, he was still too clouded to fully understand anything, until hearing her voice and remembering all that had happened.</p><p>He had left Westeros a lost boy, running from the guilt of his foster father's murder, a murder by his own hands, into the grand adventure of becoming the captain of his own ship. He landed on the shores of Sothoryos a failure, responsible for scores more deaths, and the loss of everything he ever knew. Everything he ever was. Except the dirk, of course, which stood more for who he could be than who he ever truly was as the Captain's Man.</p><p>But that was long ago. And since, he'd been responsible for even more deaths, even more pain. Though most of the lives taken were those of his enemies, the ones he still carried were the ones he still loved. A lifelong friend he'd betrayed enough to betray him. And a woman he fell in love with, only to lead to her torture and death. He never thought to revel in the defeat of the slavers and the emancipation of the miners. It was true, one could say he fulfilled his destiny, but his victory was as empty as his latest cup, and all he could think of was his loss.</p><p>As he looked upon her barely covered body, her crimson hair flowing in the breeze off the sea, he heard the words of the man he'd met with one arm and one leg, "You speak about risking everything: Do you know what everything really means? Be the hero if you choose, but remember I warned you." In that moment, Sensou's words rang hollow; spoiled sentiment on a man hell bent on his mission. Now, everything concluded and the dust all subsided from the conflict, the wise man's words sank in. Looking at her, standing among the smoking and rolling ground around them, Aegon now knew what everything was, and why a stranger would warn him so.</p><p>He stood in the breeze, his jahkyar cloak around his shoulders, the dirk in his hand, not hopeful for the remaining destiny that awaited him, but fearful. <em>What more can I give to this Lord of Light when he has already taken away everything?</em></p><p>"There is but one more thing," she said to him, removing the ruby from her neck. "This is a token from our Lord. Though my purpose here is fulfilled, yours is not. This will assist you, though even I do not know how or when." He reluctantly took the red stone as she forced it into his open palm and closed his fingers around it. "In one day's time, a ship will arrive due east of here in a cove with a rock that's shaped like a spear. If you wait there, your journey will continue. If you choose to forsake your destiny, shrivel and die, as I will."</p><p>She left him, sauntering away in a fashion that would've once perked his interest, but now only saddened him more. Her flowing red hair wasn't hers anymore. It was Nahknani's. And her finely curved ass was far too small for him to smile at. As she stepped away, into the calm still water at the edge of the molten rock, she faded away, aging, then crumbling to a fine red dust that dispersed with another breeze.</p><p>He was left with a choice, though it seemed like there was none at all. He had followed his destiny this far, and still in a haze from reawakening, he felt he had to seek this cove she spoke of. If he had wanted to stay with the Brindled People he helped free, he wouldn't have sacrificed himself to the mountain. If he stayed, he'd see Nahknani in every face, in every stone, in every living thing. He needed to ease his pain somehow, though he doubted it possible, and knew that staying here would only ever remind him of her. He had to leave. He made his choice.</p><p>"Daleun," he asked the keep, which meant another in the new language he'd have to try to pick up. He was never one for learning tongues, but as no one but a select few spoke any Valyrian or the common tongue, he tried to learn enough words to get by. Another drink was as necessary as anything he could otherwise consider, so he learned daleun almost immediately.</p><p>The keep responded with a sour face, stretched across the front of his rounded head and framed by wispy brows and whiskers. He spoke too quickly for Aegon to understand anything but the disgust in his tone, but after some grumbling, he turned around and grabbed the glass pitcher of clear liquid.</p><p>The keep poured. Aegon drank, and the cycle repeated until he couldn't remember how many he'd had or how much longer it was until the morrow. When he was drunk enough to pass out, Aegon would return to the local hovel he paid for to sleep while ashore, a room no larger than a privy with straw laid down on a cold stone floor. If he wasn't absolutely shit faced, he would never have gotten even a wink of sleep. But he made sure he was suited for the arduous task of each night drinking as much as he could and still walk.</p><p>This night could have easily been lost in the monotonous haze each day and evening had turned into, but as he turned down the alley toward the sty he called his home, he felt eyes on him, following him. He initially shrugged off the feeling as no more than a drunken mistake, but soon after he could hear the patter of footsteps and the heavy breathing of men about to attack.</p><p>He turned, stumbling more than he already had been to feign being drunker than he was. <em>Better to appear worse for wear</em>. <em>Let them have a false confidence </em>he thought. He took a few drunken steps towards the group of four, only their frames visible in the dying light of the sparsely placed oil lamps in the alley. So far from the walls of Leng Ma proper, the outskirts of the harbor town were the perfect place for him to hide amongst the poor and common members of this new society, and while in port, he managed to remain hidden behind his grown and grisly beard and his once again long dark locks. His fair skin betrayed him from time to time, a white devil to some in this place, but as many hours as he spent rowing hard for his new crew he spent wallowing in his own misery, and mostly avoided conflict. Tonight, would be the first time since Sothoryos he drew his blade, if he needed to at all.</p><p>He fell back, purposely, and spoke slurring his Valyrian almost beyond recognition, "Good evening, kind folk, or is it morning?" He stumbled back to his feet, as he saw the first of the men step towards him. His gait was confident, and only his wretched grin was visible under his dark hood in the light of the lamps.</p><p>The lead man spoke in one of the native tongues of this new place. He couldn't yet distinguish between the two, but it sounded more like the YiTi form of Lengii, than the native one. The population of this island was split into two native races: those descended from the mainland of YiTi, known as Yits, and those descended from the native Lengii, known as Legs.</p><p>Yits were usually smaller, shorter, and lighter of skin and coloring. They mostly wore flowing robes, and the noble women would sometimes paint their faces pale white. Their eyes were more narrow, and their faces more rounded, but that was all from his blurred perspective usually cups and cups into his night.</p><p>Legs were lithe, inhumanly tall, and dark as ebony or teak. Their bodies were mostly lean, and their muscles well chiseled, though many, even his crew mates, seemed unable to gain mass or bulk. Their faces were thinner, and the structure of their cheeks and jaws more cut. Many wore gold or silver bands around their mid arms and shins, as a common garnish to their elaborate and colorful garb. Many of the more noble looking Legs he'd seen were outfitted so colorfully, they resembled peacocks strutting the decks, surrounded on all sides by seven foot or taller guards, their bare chests painted in markings that reminded him of Ootrahk.</p><p>The man approached him, drawing a small dagger. "I hope your skill makes up for your lack of length," he said in Valyrian, to which his attacker was ignorant to. Aegon deftly slipped his dirk from its hidden sheath, beneath his tattered and loose-fitting cloak he donned while rowing or drinking, and held the blade behind him as to not alert his attacker he too was armed.</p><p>The rest of his group followed, drawing their own stunted blades and beginning to circle him, slowly. They proceeded with caution, which Aegon respected, but their smirks spoke to an air of extreme confidence among them, all hooded and shrouded by the dark alleyway. That would end up being their downfall.</p><p>Aegon purposely stumbled to his feet as the lead attacker stepped closer. "Last chance," Aegon warned in Valyrian, "if you turn back now, I'll spare you." None of the men responded with anything other than oblivious grins as the lead attacker lunged forward with the dagger.</p><p>Aegon straightened his posture, abandoning his act, and spun away from the lazy stab. The man's arm clumsily darted past his whirling tattered cloak as Aegon let a backhand swipe from the dirk slash the back of the first man's neck. He continued spinning, and caught the next closest attacker's dagger with his left hand and thrust the dirk across the second's outstretched arm and into the third attacker gaining ground on his left flank. The fourth attacker panicked and froze, as the third coughed and stumbled to his knees. With the second's right wrist still in his grasp, he recoiled to dirk and thrust it into him. The man's face, still shrouded under the cloak in mostly darkness, lit up in terror as the dirk crunched into what Aegon assumed was his spine. He quickly pulled the dirk out, dropped the now dying man, and turned to face the first, bearing down on him from behind. He parried away the man's dagger thrust with such force, it flew from his hands, clanging on the cobbled street below, and finished him with a slash across his throat.</p><p>The fourth was still left frozen in a panic. His knees were trembling and a puddle of his fear spread from the pant leg of his breeches. Aegon felt pity and roared at him, feigning a thrust with the dirk, and the man ran, screaming something Aegon couldn't understand, out of the alley and back into the street. Though mostly sobered after the rush of blood lust, Aegon thought little of the man's screaming and followed. He wasn't chasing him, but only wished to return to the winesink to regain the altered state that would allow him to sleep in the shithole hovel he called his home.</p><p>As he turned the corner from the alley, he looked back at his work. Seeing the sprawled bodies and pooling blood behind him, he felt his cheeks tense and his mouth spread for the first time since he could remember. His smile made his face sore, as he felt himself again, if even for a moment. Looking back into the street, he saw the craven attacker sprinting away, waving his arms and screaming. He was alerting uniformed men on horseback, all dressed in traditional YiTi garb he couldn't describe other than green and official, and his smile dissipated as quickly as it appeared. <em>Fuck.</em></p><p>A foreigner in this place, he feared the reaction officials would have to his work, warm blood trickling down his cheeks and hand; probably covering his beggars clothing. He sheathed the dirk and raised his hands, assuming he was to be seized. He hoped someone knew Valyrian, as it was his only hope to explain himself.</p><p>He calmly walked towards the group of officials, the streets now littered with bystanders curious of the cries from the craven, peeking out of their hovels and second story windows to see the commotion. The street was barely lit, but brighter than the alley, and he started to yell out in Valyrian preemptively, "I was attacked, four to my one. I allowed this man to live as he ran in fear. There are three men in the alley, presumably dead, but they attacked first. I mean no harm to anyone else and only wish to be treated fairly."</p><p>The craven turned, hearing his Valyrian, and scurried behind the officials in fear, still ranting in the YiTi tongue common here. The officials heard and saw him, all but one kicking their horses to a gallop. Aegon kneeled in the middle of the cobbled street, his hands still raised in the air. "Please allow me to explain myself so that justice is served. I will accept the proper consequences for someone that's defended themselves, but I did not initiate this attack, and would never wantonly engage four men for no reason."</p><p>The three horses galloped toward him, unimpeded by his pleas for understanding, as the remaining official began his gallop, calling out to his comrades from behind. Moments before their horses reached them, they must have heard what he said and pulled back on their reins simultaneously. "Jungji! Jigeum meomchwo!" he yelled from behind. They all stopped as the last of the officials galloped quickly to his side and dismounted.</p><p>Up close, their garb resembled that of a knight, though the plates of their armor was studded leather, with flaps from their shoulders to midway down the arm, a breast plate with a jade dragon plate featured in the center of their chest, and a long flowing fauld like bottom, also of studded leather. They each wore an open faced helm, though the won the man next to him wore looked like gold plated steel, forged to resemble the same eastern dragon head represented on his chest. His entire YiTi descendant face was visible and stern. Judging his features, Aegon guess the man was about forty, though his jaw and cheekbones were chiseled, and his worn face exuded the stoic steel of a battle tested veteran. He wore a thin mustachio and a long pointed chin beard, and his narrow eyes were fixated on Aegon in a way that looked pensive, calculating.</p><p>"What say you to these claims of treachery, white devil?" he asked in better Valyrian than Aegon could ever have expected.</p><p>"I was attacked by four hooded men," he replied, his hands still raised high. "I killed three and let the fourth run away with his life. That is the man there, and you can ask him why one man would attack four in an alley."</p><p>The man's face remained a stone, "It is not for me to decide, but what you say seems sensible enough. We will still take you before the magistrate, however. Your fate will be his to decide. You will either come quietly, or we will be forced to kill you now and determine your guilt later."</p><p>Aegon sat on a cold stone floor behind decorative steel bars for what seemed like days, but as the sun was barely beginning to peak in through a slotted hole in the limestone wall, it couldn't have been more than a few hours. Contemplating his potential fate, he laughed to himself. <em>If this was the destiny she spoke of, that dusty red bitch can bugger herself in her tiny ass with all of the fires of the seven hells. </em>After his thought, he responded to himself <em>though now hearing it, she'd enjoy that too much. She can go live with the Others, freezing beyond the wall then.</em></p><p>He submitted to the officials peacefully, surrendering his dirk to the Valyrian speaking captain saying, "If innocent, I'm going to need this back." The captain replied with the same frozen face. No words or expressions, just a straight mouth, steely eyes, and the posture of a statue.</p><p>His walk into the city, Leng Ma proper, was a wonderous education in YiTi architecture. Slanted roofs of freshly painted curved wood, crested with tiers of angled second and third floors, open to the elements loomed over the painted limestone walls, ornately decorated in blue and green, jade and sapphire, the colors of Leng.</p><p>Once through the solid bronze gate ornamented with eastern dragons he'd seen on the official's armor, they entered into a thriving square, full of the noises and commotion of trade. On each side of each cobbled roadway were merchants with tables and tents set up like a shadow city in Dorn, though their wares and silken sun screens were as vibrantly colored as forests of Sothoryos. There were spice merchants, food merchants, gem merchants, and beastiaries, all peddling treasures like none Aegon could ever imagine. He had seen his fair share of foreign ports and markets, traveling to every major city from Lannisport to Qarth, yet everything here seemed as new as if he had never traveled a step outside of the bland cold walls of White Harbor.</p><p>His escort startled the dense crowds as they trotted past on their horses, calling out to make way, he assumed, in the YiTi tongue. Unawares amongst the bustle of the city, the masses were surprised and curious to see a white skinned, purple eyed captive next to the similarly shackled craven, whom the captain of the officials also seized upon hearing Aegon's side of his sordid tale of treachery. The man's fear had never left his eyes, and it seemed he continued to piss with every step from the outskirts where they had surrendered to the square before the city's capitol building, a golden domed monstrosity that looked more a temple of worship than a place of official business.</p><p>He and the craven were led around the beautiful structure, to an underground tunnel below. There, they were separated and released from their shackles. Aegon was given his own cell. The craven was forced to join a collective of other ragged offenders he saw from across the corridor of his cell, just before the decorated gate was closed on him in the light of but one fading oil lamp.</p><p>As he wondered how the morning sunlight shone down into the underground dungeon, Aegon could hear footsteps of what sounded like a whole crowd approaching his cell from around the corner of the hall that led to him, and saw the flicker of more than a few torches licking off the walls of his prison.</p><p>"Joesu, son-eul byeog-e daesibsio," the first to appear ordered, dressed in the same garb as the officials from the street, though he nor any of the others that appeared moments later looked familiar.</p><p>"Where is the one who speaks Valyrian?" Aegon asked, as the lead guard repeated what he had said again, with more conviction and a rising anger in his tone. "I'd obey, but I know not of your tongue or your customs. I'm going to just stand here with my hands up. See. I submit."</p><p>Still clearly unhappy with him, the lead guard unlocked his cell and gruffly fitted him with shackles and fetters. Aegon graciously allowed them to perform their duties. He had no quarrels with any of these men, and knew his fate, his promised destiny, hung in the balance of his every move and word.</p><p>The guards led him through the corridors of the dungeon, passed the cells full of other criminals. As he passed, they all jeered at him with rage, calling him something sounding like, "hayan agma." He only responded with a sarcastic smile, and continued on, jingling in his restraints.</p><p>He and his unwilling retinue eventually reached a steel cage that looked to be a lift of some kind, opened the thin double gate, and pushed him in. Two guards stayed on the bottom floor to operate the lift and soon, he and the remaining guards began to rise one clink at a time.</p><p>At its apex, the lift stopped in what seemed a different land all together. The once bland, cold, limestone walls, moist with dew were replaced with smooth gleaming marble, veined with what looked like flowing gold glittering in the sunlight shining through perforations in a golden dome above. Crystals hung down like frozen rain from the ceiling, reflecting arched miniscule rainbows, and the top of the walls were crusted with so many colored gems, he felt he had been lifted to a wealthy man's ideal heaven. For him though, a mourning wretch of a sailor and warrior, it all seemed an elaborately decorated death walk, and a small piece of his grieving heart almost welcomed a punishment that would end his guilt-ridden suffering. <em>At least I got to taste of victory one last time. I warned those cretins to bugger off. Maybe this indeed is my promised destiny. A death in the gleam of the glory I chased. A symbol of the greed that led me ultimately here.</em></p><p>The guards yanked him out of the stupefied trance he was stuck in, beholding the riches and beauty that surrounded him with his head up and his mouth half agape, pulling him passed smooth round marble columns to another corridor, flanked on either side by golden replicas of that same eastern dragons on the gate and the guards chests.</p><p>The corridor opened up into a throne room of sorts, surrounded on both sides of a jade runway with the crowded court, the faces mostly that of what appeared to be YiTi nobles. Women with white faces and men with silk robes all regarded him as he was ushered to the raised dais, supported by four levels of marble stairs, with the same jade walkway all the way to the top where an elderly man sat a golden and sapphire throne.</p><p>He wore a light blue gown that flowed well passed his covered feet, embroidered with a floral pattern of cranes in white lace. Atop his small, wrinkled head, he wore a flat topped rectangular hat, trimmed with gold and green, but mostly in the matching color to his robe-like gown. His face was as stern as the Valyrian speaking guard, and similarly shaped, who stood to his right, as sternly and stoic as ever, staring into the distance directly in front of him, ignoring the glory and humanity all around. The elder man's chin was garnished with a long white beard, pin straight, and brushed down onto his lap. As Aegon was pushed before the bottom step of the staircase, before the elder in light blue, the man raised his gaunt arms and the rabble of the crowd immediately silenced.</p><p>Behind the elder in blue were similarly garbed men in varying blues and greens, all topped with hats of a similar shape, but much shorter than the man in the throne. Of the six behind him, four looked to be native Lengii, standing taller than seven feet, ebony skinned, and as lithe as the room was ornate. Aegon quickly turned to the crowd. It was interesting to see that though the leadership was mostly native Lengii, the court was nearly all YiTi, save two native Lengii among them. <em>Seems odd that their leadership would be unrepresentative of their population, </em>but as a newcomer to this land and its customs, he didn't waste much more than a heartbeat on the thought of Lengii politics. <em>In earnest, there are little things I could care less about in the entirety of the known world. I just hope this place is somewhat fair and just.</em></p><p>The man in the throne addressed his court, speaking softly but sternly in the silent respect of his constituents. After concluding his words, the Valyrian speaking guard translated, seemingly only for the accused, saying, "In the name of the Goddess among Men, I Kaono Soon, Magistrate of Leng Ma, and servant to her Empress, now begin the trial of this purple eyed foreigner to our land. What say you, foreigner, what is your name and what is your explanation of the events that led to the deaths of three Lengii."</p><p>"If it pleases, your grace, I wish to remain anonymous. Surely the name of a lowly rowman is of no importance in a court as grand and beautiful as this." Aegon replied, unsure of who he was or what to call himself here.</p><p>The elder man, after hearing and apparently understanding his words, responded in Valyrian saying, "If you do not respond honestly and fully to my inquiries, ser, than I will be forced to believe your accuser. I will ask again, what is your name, Valyrian?"</p><p>"I am no one." Aegon responded.</p><p>"If you find this proceeding humorous," the man responded, cooly and without scorn or expression, "we here can all enjoy your final steps after your head is removed. As a purveyor of laughter in mine own walls, that to me would be more amusing than your playing with words. For the last time, I ask you to state your name before my court and be judged."</p><p>"My name is Aegon Velaryon, your grace. I mean no humor or offense. Its just my name attracts very unwanted attention, and I would have preferred to remain no one."</p><p>"You can forego with, your grace, Aegon Velaryon. I am but a magistrate in this great land. My proper title is, 'Your Honor," he said, as the Valyrian speaking guard continually translated their exchange to the crowd.</p><p>"Your Honor," Aegon responded, nodding respectfully.</p><p>"Now, we're getting somewhere. I once knew of a Velaryon. A Corlys Velaryon. Is he kin of yours?"</p><p>"That is of some dispute, your honor. Though I am the natural born son of my father, a Velaryon, through his union to my mother, my father's own heritage is under some dispute, and I may not be related to the man at all. Was he a friend of yours?"</p><p>"No. An enemy more like, though what is passed is passed. A true snake he was, your Sea Snake. He not only left our glorious island with his hulls full of riches unearned in my families' eyes, he also stole the maidenhead and heart of my ancestor."</p><p>"As I mentioned, my name attracts attention, specifically from those who would call me kin. I am a threat to my own uncle's right to rule his kingdom of Westeros, so my aunt and the rest of the Velaryon's wish me dead or captured. I empathize with your disdain for a Velaryon, as I too have been wronged by men of that name."</p><p>"Well met, Aegon –," he paused and instead of saying his second name, his face momentarily flashed disdain. "I shall not speak that name again in this court, so you shall have your indemnity." His face then quickly returned to the still portrait of composure. "Moving on. Please, tell me the circumstances of your crimes against Leng this past evening."</p><p>"I was drinking at a local winesink and started walking back to my room to sleep. Four men wearing black cloaks approached and attacked me with daggers. I fought back with my dirk and killed the three. One was left in fear, pissing himself, and I allowed him to flee. He ran straight to your official," he pointed at the stone faced guard, "and I surrendered myself to him, knowing the fair and just rule you enforce on this beautiful island."</p><p>"Flattery will not serve you here, Aegon. This is not Westeros or Valyria. Justice will be based on the truth of the events as I see them, but I thank you for your direct confession to these murders."</p><p>"Murder?" Aegon replied, fighting to not sound incredulous. "I only defended myself, your honor. How can it be that I murdered them?"</p><p>"Are the men you killed dead, ser?" the man pressed calmly.</p><p>"Yes."</p><p>"Am I to believe that you are not so skilled with a blade that cutting through these wretched bottom feeders was not easy, no, dare I say, enjoyable for you?" he asked again with a slight grin of self approval.</p><p>"In keeping with honesty, your honor, it would be a falsehood to say there was no joy in it for me. I told them to turn away. They pressed on despite my warning."</p><p>"You speak our tongue now? You warned them in words they could understand?"</p><p>"No. I warned them in Valyrian."</p><p>"So the words you gave them were as clear as our words are to you then. No?"</p><p>"Yes, your honor."</p><p>"So, despite your explanation of defense, it seems these men died because you wished them to."</p><p>"If they did not attack me, I would have quietly stumbled to my stone floor, fell asleep, and woke up to row this morning without incident."</p><p>"This is also the truth, isn't it? Guards, bring the other prisoner. Aegon, if I were you, in the essence of fairness, and the respect for these proceedings, I would remain as silent as the stone floor you sleep on, or you will force me to make an example out of a mouthy foreigner before my constituents. Understood, ser?"</p><p>"Clearly."</p><p>The craven was brought in, to similar jeers and jests Aegon received in the dungeons. It seemed he too was some sort of outcast or deplorable member of their society, though Aegon had no idea what made him so different than the ones who shunned him so.</p><p>The magistrate addressed him in their language, similarly calm and as steely as when he spoke to Aegon. The man responded, quivering with each response. It must have followed a similar structure as the man seemed to identify himself and answer questions as the magistrate slowly pressed and pressed him into telling his side. After multiple exchanges, the craven became increasingly uneasy and seemed to be shifting within his own skin to each new calm and clearly annunciated question from the man in the throne. Sweat began to bead on the man's forehead, as the questions fired more quickly, and the responses became shorter and more difficult for the man to utter.</p><p>Kaono Soon raised a hand with four fingers, asking what Aegon assumed was why a man would randomly attack four armed strangers in a tight alley. The craven struggled to answer and turned to the crowd for support. He was met with an uproarious laughter after the magistrate responded to his plea with a quick word, a quip Aegon thought, and even he began to grin, unaware of exactly what was said.</p><p>"I salam-eul jug-ilyeogo haesseubnikka?" the magistrate asked.</p><p>"Naneunhaji anh-assda. Naega gajin namjadeul man geudeul-eun baegsaeg agmaleul jug-igo geuui buleul gajyeo galago alhaessda," the craven replied.</p><p>The magistrate nodded. Spoke again, then ordered something to his guards. The guards swiftly approached the man, holding him by the arms, extending them out. Kaono asked another question, to which the craven stuttered in response. Kaono asked again, still as cool and steely as he'd ever been, and the craven shook through his skin, with the response of what Aegon heard as "No!" screaming it at the top of his lungs.</p><p>Another guard, covered in midnight blue from head to toe, stepped forward, holding a blade longer and wider than any greatsword Aegon had ever seen, its silvery sheen glaring in the morning sun that shone through the holes in the dome above them. He quickly and methodically closed the distance, and proceeded to swing his blade down hard and through the man's arms one at a time, each slice soliciting a gut wrenching immasculine scream from the craven.</p><p>Blood stained the marble floor below him, as the man's body quivered harder in pain and terror, and his arms were callously discarded by the guards still holding them, tossed away as if they were the empty shells of an eaten cockle. The magistrate continued, simply asking another question to the man, softly, cooly. He had no way to respond, still shaking and frozen in the jarring surprise of it all. The magistrate asked the question again, in the same cadence and tone, unaffected by the gruesome display and the horror instilled in the now armless craven. Still without a response, the magistrate again nodded to the man in midnight blue, who swung his blade through the man's throat, ceasing the shaking immediately, as his head rolled off his shoulders and bounced twice on the hard marble floor with a slight crunch.</p><p>Aegon's eyes widened as the man's sentence was carried out, and suddenly he felt a bit of fear creep into him for the first time.</p><p>Looking down with an unchanged expression from his high throne, the magistrate turned his attention to Aegon and said in Valyrian, "This man never spoke truly, and for that, he cannot be trusted. I offered him the opportunity to die swiftly, or lose his arms. He hesitated, but eventually chose his arms. When I asked if he could continue to live with the knowledge of his wrongdoing, he had no answer for me, so I ended his suffering." He paused and adjusted himself in his seat, shifting the long blue robe from underneath him. "Now, for your sentence, Aegon. Do you deny the findings of this proceeding? Did you unnecessarily take the lives of the three men you are accused? Remember, the man to your left said nothing but lies. I encourage you to speak only truth."</p><p>"Your honor, though I believe it was necessary to defend myself, your wisdom has shown me that their deaths were as much a cause of my wishes to do them harm as they were to ensure my safety. Although I would argue that the altercation was started by the men in question, I will confess their deaths are because of my blade. I take responsibility for their deaths and ask you to show mercy on me for my wrong doing."</p><p>"Good, Aegon. Very good. Indeed, you are guilty of killing these men, though as I see it, you tell the truth despite its sharp edges and the dangers to your person. This is the rarest and most valuable of virtues, and thus, it is my decision that you choose between the following punishments." <em>Please not my arms. </em>"You can either resign your life and I will end it here, or" <em>there's another choice, tough one it seems. Though if he says he'd take my arms, I'd rather end this misery. </em>"Or, you can serve in my own personal guard for one year for each life you've taken."</p><p>"I will serve your grace. I will serve," he responded immediately, fearing any hesitation would lead to a similar fate as the craven.</p><p>"A man with your honesty and fighting skill should not be wasted, though, I warn you, any further transgressions that are deemed to be irredeemable will leave me no choice but to end your life. Is that clear, ser Aegon?"</p><p>"Crystal."</p><p>"I'm sorry?"</p><p>"Crystal. Clear like a crystal. It's a westerosi idium."</p><p>"That it may be, but until you are dismissed, you will address me in a manner befitting this proceeding."</p><p>"It is very clear, your honor. Forgive me."</p><p>
  <strong>A/N</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Thank you all again for reading. Please check out our Community Group ASOIAF EU, which features two also great works: A Tale of Two Dragons, and The Dance is Not Over. In regards to Leng: Ancient Ones, this has been tough to get started.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Unlike Sothoryos, mostly, Leng is both a cultured civilized society, as well as an untamed mysterious jungle, so I have chronicled (in my imagination) the Free History of Leng since 100 before Aegon's Conquest, until Aegon's present which is 153 AC. I have written a very dry timeline like history that I will soon publish on this site as a companion piece for those interested in the backstory to the political situations of Leng as Aegon will learn along with us. For those that do not wish to read something even dryer than Fire and Blood, just know that Leng is a society of two major cultures that have coexisted on the island for hundreds of years: the people descendant from YiTi immigrants in the northern half of the island (mostly) and the native Lengii who inhabit the southern half of the island (mostly).</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>There will be much more to learn and much more to come. Feel free to respond with your thoughts and feedback as your reactions to both the ending of Sothoryos: Drahkness Kahn, and the beginning of Aegon's new stage in his destiny are very important to me. Thanks again for reading and enjoy!</strong>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is the second story featuring my original character, Aegon Velaryon.</p><p>In this chapter, you see him dealing with the conclusion of the previous work Sothoryos: Drahkness Kahn, in which he "succeeded" in defeating the "enemy" but lost the woman he loved, shot through the heart with an arrow as they celebrated their victory.</p><p>Thank you for reading and please let me know what you think with a comment.</p><p>I'd love to help you understand either the previous story and where Aegon is coming from entering Leng, as well as what's going on in Leng and why take the story here.</p><p>I had composed a long history of Leng, since becoming its own free Land hundreds of years before Aegon's arrival, and to learn a little bit more about Leng, check out A World of Ice and Fire or the Wiki of Ice and Fire.</p><p>Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing what you think in the comments</p><p>HS</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>2</p><p>He woke in the barracks of the magistrate's personal guard, the Dragon Guard of Leng Ma, in a softer bed than he had slept on in years, maybe the softest he'd ever slept on. Each guard was given a cot, lined with the geese down, and a silk pillow as soft as Nahknani's skin. He slept comfortably, though the guilt of his past marred his dreams with sadness, and he woke sweating in the middle of most nights unaware that what his mind had just witnessed was the dream of the past and not a new a terrifyingly familiar present. He was holding her, kissing her, and felt the arrow pierce into him. . . through her, and though it had been so long, he'd suppressed those memories the best he could with drink, and within the guard, he was only allowed one day of such revelries each new moon, scheduled to coincide with the coverage of his duties by the rest of his new brethren.</p><p>If he were to be caught drunk, or recovering from drink when he was meant to serve official business, it would be a breach of his agreement, and would mean punishment similar to the craven from the proceedings of the previous morning. And though some moments, racked with the overwhelming weight of the losses he still mourned, he thought he'd welcome the punishment, a part of him still fought to keep clinging to life he'd been granted. Onward. Forward.</p><p>He was instructed of his duties and commitments almost immediately following the proceedings by the stone-faced guard, Jugo Soon, who just so happened to be the eldest grandson of the magistrate, and unfortunately for him, the only man able to communicate with the pale recruit.</p><p>Within the hierarchy of the guard were two groups, he was told, the Jade Guard, consisting of mostly nobles and the second sons of nobles, more for show and ceremonies than actual members of the protective outfit entrusted with both the safety of the magistrate himself and the order of the city proper and the surrounding outskirts where he once resided, and the Azure Guard: a collection of commoners, skilled pit fighters, and petty criminals that showed promise, like himself, and apparently the man who would be his mentor, the immovable rock of stoicism that was also the descendant of the well respected leader of this community, who were the ones tasked with the real work.</p><p>Jugo had little and less patience with "Bolasaeg Nun" or purple eyes in their tongue, and behaved as if Aegon's sentence was his own, begrudgingly assisting the newcomer with everything, like a mother a suckling babe, as Aegon might have been as helpless without a translator, at least at the moment.</p><p>"You're fist task, Bolasaeg Nun, will be to learn enough of our tongue for me to go back to more important duties than chaperoning you through your new life. In the mornings, you will learn from the same teacher that taught me. Afternoons will be spent scrubbing the dungeons, and evenings will be your watch, as you and I will stand guard at my grandfather's door until we are relieved. I suggest you sleep when you can, there will be little time for you to until you learn how to speak to the citizens of this city."</p><p>The first morning was easy. The first afternoon arduously rough. And the first evening was mostly spent in silence, standing next to his gravely serious mentor, motionless, emotionless, waiting for something that never came, and towards the end of their shift, his eyes began to weigh as much as his new Lengii armor, and he began to nod off, only managing to catch himself twice, before Jugo woke him with a harsh slap to the face. "Fall asleep again while watching for our magistrate and I will return you to the dungeons." Aegon fought his lids as hard as he could, and when he thought he couldn't hold his purple eyes open another heartbeat, he was luckily relieved of his watch by two YiTi descendant members of the Azure Guard. "You are dismissed, Purple Eyes. Go seek the sleep you need. On the morrow, we will continue with your new schedule."</p><p>The next morning was tougher, awakened by the crow of some strange chicken, cawing more like a cat in heat than a bird, with a crested black head and thin wispy plumes that flowed from the top of its twitching head like a fountain. Gods damn that bird. His teachings were so rudimentary, he felt his new routine would last until the day he died, probably from exhaustion, boredom, or the executioners blade, for he would never learn enough to communicate with even a Lengii babe, never mind the ability to speak with another grown adult and both follow their speech and match it with sensible thoughts of his own.</p><p>The afternoon was even harder, his muscles sore in places he hadn't ever felt before. Rowing was one thing. The repetitive pulling and pushing with his legs and arms, rhythmic and circular, he could not only deal with the burn in his muscles, but since he'd done it his whole adult life, his body could push through even the worst soreness in those familiar spots. Scrubbing a stone floor was altogether different. Tiny connecting muscles in his elbows and shoulders, that seemed to have never been used before, flared up like the lava of Drahkness Kahn, burning him hotter than any flame ever could. Worse yet, any time he stopped to either console his screaming body, or take a breath to rest, a member of the Jade Guard would sternly remind him of his duties. The overseer in the dungeon spoke not a word of Valyrian, so his only communication with Aegon was a short leather whip, which he would use once as a warning, and any subsequent message was sent to Aegon's back. Crawling for hours on stone, his knees felt as though they were dissolving beneath him, and his hands were raw and pruned from gripping the steel brush and scraping it back and forth on the blood and piss-soaked floor of the dungeon.</p><p>The evening was almost a reward, soaked in a cooling sweat, and comfortable in the soothing weight of the armor pressing gently down on his sore shoulders. He tried to start small talk with Jugo about an hour into their watch, trying to show off some of the basic words he'd learn from his tutor, a spindly old woman who matched Jugo's sternness with a fervent stoicism of her own. "Your accent is shit, Purple Eyes, and now is no time to banter like whores. We are meant to watch the magistrate and protect him from those that would do him harm. Keep your mouth shut and your eyes open. Or the dungeon."</p><p>Or the dungeon Aegon said to himself in a mocking tone. Despite Aegon's inherent defiance, he acquiesced, and remained as silent as his partner for the rest of the watch, catching himself nodding off only once before being relieved. He raced to his cot to get rest before the next day.</p><p>Each subsequent day felt easier, as his body, mind, and internal dialogue became more and more familiar with his new routine. Each lesson in the morning became increasingly fruitful, to the point that a week in, he was able to say a joke to his teacher, who cracked a smile. Kiku Ma, she called herself. Aegon wasn't sure if it was more of a pet name or her birthname, but he didn't care, as her lessons would eventually lead to a life without scrubbing.</p><p>The scrubbing was always hard, but the pain lessened each day. Like rowing, there was a rhythm to it, and once he found it, he could become lost in his thoughts, focusing on the lessons he'd learn earlier in the day with Kiku, memorizing all that she had said to ensure he advanced in his lessons.</p><p>Each night was a welcome relief, as eventually, his body became used to the hours he kept, and rarely ever felt tired enough to begin to doze. He remained a copy of his Valyrian speaking partner, stoic silent stone, and soon, he thought he could even feel a closeness developing between he and Jugo, though he'd never wager a meaningful amount of money on it. Regardless, it was nice to imagine the man with a kind side behind the stone veneer. But he only imagined it, as he never worked up the will to try and engage in another conversation with him, other than the necessary responses to orders he'd given. That's what he likes, though, he must be warming to me.</p><p>The hardest part of each day was when his responsibilities ended and he was left to his own thoughts. During the day, he'd find himself wallowing from time to time, but he mostly focused on the immediate task at hand, or the lessons from earlier in the day to keep his mind from wandering across the Summer Sea to Sothroyos, where the events that forged him into Drahkness Kahn, also scarred him beyond repair. No flame or magic could ever heal the hole in his soul, and each night as he laid down to bed, he wished it was her body and not the pillow on which his head rested. The softness would only remind him of her, and reopen the festering wound that was his guilt. His sorrow. His loss.</p><p>Some nights, he'd dream of their last embrace and her last words would echo in the dark cavern of his mind in the same broken cadence she'd uttered them. "I. . . wouldn't have done anything. . . . any other way."</p><p>Some nights, lucky ones, he'd remember their last night together. After the moments of ecstasy, the extreme guilt would return, as he would still, and always, leave the tent, face Sensou, and hear his words. "Do you know what everything really means?" Those nights, he would wake up gasping for breath, then return to his soft pillow to shed silent tears of grief and painful sadness.</p><p>He rose each day to the sound of the bird. Thrice damned fucking bird. What the fuck is that sound? But he approached each day with a false positivity to try and move past his grief. Onward. Forward. It is what she would want. Isn't it?</p><p>After a week, he could speak sentences. After a month, he could speak conversations. And after two, he felt he was ready to approach Jugo with his understanding of their tongue and diction. Kiku Ma was extremely impressed with her student. So much so, that she arrived that very morning with a date filled baked good she called a yoonyee to reward and celebrate his progress. Touched by the first compassionate human interaction in this new land, he took her by her wrinkly hands and danced with her around the common room they gathered in for his lessons, twirling her as he imagined lords did in Westeros during feasts and balls. The old wench seemed to have the time of her life, grinning her mostly toothless mouth in a far more sinister way than at the jests he had become accustomed to. She spoke words he didn't yet learn and asked in their tongue, "What you say is dirty?"</p><p>To which she replied, "Very dirty indeed."</p><p>That afternoon, he reported for scrubbing and greeted the guard with, "Good day, kind ser."</p><p>To which the random member of his new brotherhood responded, "Fuck off, white devil. Grab your brush and scrub."</p><p>"It would be kind for me to run so," he responded. He was still learning yet.</p><p>That evening, he appeared for his watch duty, still gleaming from the first day with any happiness in it since he'd lost everything, again. The wry smirk of his happiness offended his partner, Jugo, to which he replied, "What's so funny, Purple Eyes?"</p><p>Aegon replied in their tongue, "It seems I have a person who thinks to like me."</p><p>"Not bad, though your accent is shit and that still doesn't make much sense," he said in Valyrian. "Who could you have met that would like the likes of you?"</p><p>"She's a feisty one, that," he said in Valyrian, as he didn't want to misspeak and make it sound as if he meant anything more than a fleeting jest in discussing Kiko to a man who was more than likely somewhat raised by her. "She says she likes, ol' Purple Eyes. Old as she may be, we will never truly have what we could have, but either way, I've grown on her, and she's grown on me."</p><p>"Since we have yet to start, I will allow this nonsense, but in a moment or two, no more of this foolishness. Watch. Wait. In silence."</p><p>"Or the dungeons?" Aegon said in their tongue. "Sorry. I'll shut up."</p><p>"Good."</p><p>They stood their sigil in silence, watching and waiting for what would never come, it seemed, and Aegon's happiness gradually waned. Though he was progressing, he still didn't know enough of the language to be released from his current schedule, and though he forced a smile on his face for even the most mundane of successes, it would forever be tainted with the tragedy of his recent past. Every small success felt empty without someone he loved to share it with. As he thought, he audibly sighed. His partner heard him, quickly glanced his way, then continued his grave and soundless watch.</p><p>Hours passed, and still nothing but silence. He began to study the hall around him, to keep his mind occupied. The hall was as wide as two men across, the floor the same golden veined marble, and the walls decorated limestone. The door to the magistrate's room, which inside was as silent as out, was a jade and sapphire adorned slab of what looked like weirwood, but most likely wasn't, with the same eastern dragon carved into it. Then, his attention would be caught by the details of his new armor. He looked down at his boots and greaves, studying the studded pattern, and admiring the craftmanship the leatherworkers of this place.</p><p>A clangor of metal ruptured the silence from somewhere inside the palace and shook Aegon from his contemplation of leather work and footwear, as Jugo hopped up in his skin, alerted and ready. "That's coming from down a floor. Make yourself ready at the top of the stairs. It's the only way up but the windows."</p><p>They weren't the only two on guard, but the only two on the third and final floor of living quarters. The magistrate's apartments were vast and sprawling, but the room he retired to each night was only accessible through the hallway they stood, and the stairway just beyond their sight. "Go now," Jugo ordered in Valyrian. "If they overwhelm you, yell up to me so I can bar myself in the room."</p><p>Aegon grabbed the nearest torch, pulled the dirk, and crept to the top of the stairs. He heard Jugo mutter to himself in their tongue something like, "What does he need a torch for?" but Aegon focused more on the task at hand, than the confusion of his partner. At first, the silence returned, and he wondered what Jugo feared so, electing to stay back. But strategically, if Jugo were the last man standing in defense of his grandfather, the best decision to make would be to bar the door and escape through some secret passage hidden in the master bedroom, or something like that. If he were in charge, that's what he would do, though it still stung to feel so expendable. And here I thought I was beginning to grow on him.</p><p>As he crept to the top of the stairs, his soft steps barely tapping on the marble floor, the hallway he passed through decorated with large golden statues of the eastern lion which seemed to be the only symbol artists or craftsmen were allowed or commissioned to create on each side, carefully resting on thick teak platforms, he peered down the hall and kept his ears alert for more evidence of the intruders. As he crept closer, the silence became even clearer, only hearing the soft pats of his well-crafted boots on the marble, and his heart beating pump after pump. He reached the staircase and looked down it. Nothing.</p><p>He paused, waiting to see if anything changed. Until he heard another noise, muffled, and behind him. He turned and raced back to his station to see the door to the magistrate's room was open, and the muffled sounds he heard coming from within.</p><p>He burst through the half open door, the torch steady against the skin of his face, cool and tingling, the dirk poised firmly in his right hand, in case he needed to block or parry. He wore a YiTish curved sword on his hip, and would go to it if he needed, but the torch in his left hand was gilded steel, or bronze at least, beneath the gold plate or brass that gave it its decorative look, and his dirk was quicker than any man he'd met was ever able to deal with, so save an ambush of ten or more, he was more than confident he could help quell whatever attempt assassins might try.</p><p>There were three men he could see, in dark red hooded robes, one clutching Jugo from behind, holding a cloth over his face as the stone warrior kicked and struggled for air. They were armed, holding gleaming daggers, reflecting off the dim light of the moon through a window opening, and they were all seven foot or more, characteristically native Lengii, and startled to see another guard to overcome.</p><p>The assassin behind Jugo, dropped the now limp body, which folded to the floor like a pile of parchment, and drew his blade. The two just steps behind and flanking him, closer to the window opening strode towards Aegon with long, graceful steps, gliding through the dim light of the moon and towards him, while the head assassin watched, poised in a defensive stance.</p><p>They synchronized their attack, slicing across each other in succession as to not hit each other and cause confusion to their prey. Aegon parried each slice with the dirk, stepping back as to avoid the second stroke from each blade, as each spun around the other, clanging strike after strike in such rapid succession, Aegon couldn't tell from which assassin each strike came. The torch and the dirk blocked them all the same, but as he continued to retreat, he could feel the door and the wall adjacent to it getting closer, and worse, a flare from the torch found a silk cloth that was draped over a narrow table and caught fire.</p><p>In the growing orange glare of the flames, they danced around him, toward him, and one stray swipe managed to slide across the gilded dragon on his chest. Aegon roared, fearing a pain that never came, and launched a counter offensive, clubbing the face of the successful attacker with the torch. With the added strength derived from the flames, the man was sent airborne, horizontally and twisting through the air with a loud crunch and gong from the edge of the upper rim of the torch meeting the man's cheekbone. Aegon's side exposed, the other attacker lunged, piercing through Aegon's leather armor enough to cut through his skin and rib, but off target enough to glance off once through, which gave Aegon the opening to counter with a hard downward slash from the dirk, across his body, landing and sinking through the dark red robe where the hood was sewed into it, dropping the attacker immediately with a muffled spray of blood from the neck beneath red cloth.</p><p>Both attackers were down, but still alive, and the third man stood silently, motionless, over the crumpled body of Jugo Soon, who was still down, but breathing. The fire he started began to spread, and though he had two foes on the ground, wounded and near death, and another oddly standing there waiting, his instincts told him to stop the spread of the flames first. Next to the magistrate's bed, was a dish for washing, full of water. Aegon lunged to it, and dumped half of it on the original cloth and the rest on the spreading flames. Before they were fully out, he saw the two attackers gather themselves off the ground, and stumble back over towards the third uninjured assassin. Aegon's eyes quickly glanced at the bed. How is this old man still asleep? Then, back to the three assassins.</p><p>The two injured climbed out the window, as the man in the dark red hooded robe stood before him, still as a breezeless sea. Aegon's side began to pulse with pain, as he dropped the bowl and clutched his wound with his left hand and pulled the dirk with his right. He could feel the wetness, he could smell the blood, and he could feel the now leaking wound burn. The man gazed at him from under the hood, and seemingly smiled. "Well met, ser," a voice said in High Valyrian. He removed his hood, and stepped forward into the beam of moonlight in front of him. It's as if he wants me to see his face.</p><p>The towering figure stood in the beam, and the white light of the moon glowed off half of his strong chiseled face. His teak colored head was smooth, save a stripe down the center of close cropped thick black hair, and his eyes were wide, calm, and as dark as the night, looking back at him with a queer composure. Around his neck was an amber amulet, subtly glowing, like the red woman's, but muted and weak. "Until we meet again," he said, flipping his hood up, then spinning deftly to leap out the window opening. Aegon stumbled over to it, almost tripping over the furniture in the dark room, and Jugo's body, alive, but still motionless. Fitting. The seconds wasted fighting through the darkness apparently gave the assassin's enough time to flee, for when he looked out at the courtyard below, a good three stories down, there wasn't a man or evidence of them in sight. He yelled out, "Intruders! Intruders!" in their tongue, a word necessary to learn in his new profession, but the scene below him stayed as quiet and motionless as if he had said nothing at all. He yelled out again, and once more, but still no one responded to his call. Not any of the guard, or anyone. It was as if nothing at all had happened, and he was imagining the entire experience.</p><p>Kaono Soon stirred from his heavy sleep. "What is the meaning of all this?" he said in their tongue, twisting the oil lamp next to his bed to increase the light in the room. When it was lit, Aegon was still standing at the opening, bleeding heavily from his wounded side, and his grandson, the head of his guard was still motionless, but breathing on the floor of his bedchambers.</p><p>"There was an attempt to soothe you," Aegon said in their tongue the best he could.</p><p>"Soothe?" the magistrate asked, confused and still not fully awake. "Do you mean kill?"</p><p>"Yes, kill," Aegon said, annunciating well enough to be understood.</p><p>"Jugo, is he dead?"</p><p>"No, just sleeping." He didn't know any other word to use to describe his mentor's state.</p><p>"You're bleeding," the magistrate said, pointing at the dripping wound open on Aegon's left side.</p><p>"Just a scratch, your honor, but none of the other guards are responding. I don't think there's anyone left but the three of us." Aegon looked again, and called out once more. The courtyard was still and silent.</p><p>He wanted to pursue them. The man he'd hit with the torch wouldn't be bleeding, but the one whose neck he cut would. And with the trail of blood, he might be able to rally some of the surviving guards and follow them. But his duty was to protect the magistrate, and if he left to follow them, another wave of attackers could easily finish the old man off without him there. So, despite every fabric of his being urging him to chase his wounded foes, he stayed in the room, and continued to wait, hoping he'd done enough to stop this attempt.</p><p>After moments of tense waiting, he and the old man exhaled. Aegon turned to him, saying in their tongue, "You can go back to sleep, your honor," he had specifically asked Kiku to learn 'your honor' for instances like, but not exactly like this.</p><p>"Your accent is shit," he replied, and crawled back into his enormous bed, reaching over to dim the light of the oil lamp.</p><p>"I'd leave that on just a bit longer," Aegon warned.</p><p>"You seemed to do well enough without it. I will sort this all out in the morning." Ignoring Aegon's request, he spun the knob on the lamp and dimmed the room anyway.</p><p>When Jugo came to, he woke in a panic, jumping to his feet with anger in his eyes. He grinded his teeth, and leapt to the foot of his grandfather's bed, to see the man who lead the city quietly sleeping as if nothing had occurred. "He's fine," Aegon said in their tongue, sitting on the floor, his back against the wall under the window opening, his wound healed by the flames of a torch, and his eyes open and ready for another attempt.</p><p>"What happened? The assassins. Where have they gone?"</p><p>"They escaped. They tried to soothe me."</p><p>"Kill, you mean. They tried to kill you."</p><p>"Yes, but why didn't they kill you?"</p><p>"I don't know. The cloth he held over my face smelled sweet, and I –," the rest of what Jugo said in their tongue, Aegon couldn't understand.</p><p>"No one has come to relieve us and the sun is about to rise. I don't think they left anyone else alive."</p><p>"Then why are you? How is he?" he asked, pointing to his grandfather.</p><p>"He didn't sign me up for my good looks, now, did he?"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Who are these attackers?</p><p>Why do they want Kaono dead?</p><p>As the action picks up, let me know what you think.</p><p>Thanks for reading.</p><p>HS</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>3</p><p>"They do not summon those to the council chambers unless you are or what you know is of great importance to the city of Leng Ma." Kiku said, securing Aegon's flowing silk robe from behind in the traditional way of their culture.</p><p>"Why do I even have to wear this ridiculous thing? I'm no more than a criminal serving his sentence in the guard."</p><p>"Well," she said, in Valyrian, now his official translator, more or less, "you've been dubbed the Magistrate's savior. You succeeded where ten men failed. One of which is the never do wrong grandson he wishes was his direct successor."</p><p>Aegon turned to speak, though she swatted him with a fierce scolding slap, "Don't turn, these knots take time."</p><p>"If your hands weren't so wrinkled, maybe I'd be dressed?"</p><p>"If my hands weren't so wrinkled, I'd take even longer without the proper experience." Then she mumbled to herself using words in her tongue she hadn't yet taught him."</p><p>"You saying dirty things about me, again, woman?"</p><p>"Filthy. Now stand straight, you turning made me have to start over."</p><p>She pulled extra tightly on the robe's sashes this time, either rushing to appease him or yanking to reprimand, but he laughed to himself at the capable strength of the wrinkled hands he tried to mock. The woman never divulged her age, but she couldn't have been any less than seventy. Her mind and faculties, however, were as sharp as if she were a mere forty.</p><p>Given the choice of many, the new hero of Leng Ma's Magistrate chose a seafoam blue robe, for his namesake's colors, trimmed with golden garnishes in a spiraling pattern along its edges. He was surprised to see no eastern dragon represented, but was corrected when Kiku showed him inside of his right sleeve. "They always put that wretched beast somewhere. You just have to know where to look," she advised.</p><p>After she tied his robe into an elaborate and flexible bow behind him, she began to tug on his course dark hair with a steel pronged instrument to finish his YiTi descendant Lengii look. She forced him to sit, her seemingly frail frame muscling him into a nearby bench, and ripped at the knots in his hair like she meant to pluck them all out.</p><p>Pulling his head back with each swipe of the instrument, his tiny attendant asked, "What you do? Never bathe? Sure, you smell as any other man, bad, but you couldn't at least make these skinny twits draw you a bath? That's what they live to do. Especially for a man they'd like to see undress." She said more in her tongue that he ignored. Something about one of her fingers.</p><p>The previous evening, he was rewarded with one of the rooms used to house foreign dignitaries when they visited, which came with the same amenities as if he were a guest of honor. He had trouble initially falling asleep, sinking into a bed far too soft and far too large for a man with as humble an upbringing as he. When he was finally able to nod off, his mind racing as to who and why the men had attacked, why they would kill the rest and leave Jugo unharmed, and why the magistrate was able to fall back asleep so effortlessly, it wasn't late at night as much as it was early morning.</p><p>When he eventually drifted off, it was a deep sleep, dreamless, and began his recovery from the stress and the sleeplessness that had been the previous however many days since he was sentenced. It was a shame when he was roused by the crows of much lovelier birds than the black one, two young household attendants wishing to "serve" him, as they said.</p><p>They tried whispering in his ears, though their foreign words and gentle touches failed to rouse him until one decided to pull the silk covers off of his body. Startled, he popped up, seizing who he thought was another attacker by the shoulder, and pulled her onto the bed, rolling on top of her with a coiled right arm and a clenched fist. As he fully came to, realizing what he was doing, the girl beneath him pleaded, "Please, not my face."</p><p>Horrified by his own actions, and the ease in which this servant girl was prepared to be struck, he propelled himself away and off of her, sliding further than he meant on the smooth luxurious bedding, slipping off the edge, rolling upside down and crashing to the cold marble floor on his head. His naked body was wrapped in sheets, as he felt an utter fool, a brutish bafoon, pleading, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I thought you were here to soothe me. I mean, kill. I thought you were here to kill me."</p><p>The girls were confused and shaken, but accepted his apology, laughing, and offered him strange fruits and a steaming kettle to break his fast. He declined on both, asking, "Do these things please you to have?" knowing his sentence structure was odd, but feeling confident in his word choice and annunciation.</p><p>The girls nodded, to which he replied by saying, "They are yours now. I will make ready myself. Thank you." They quickly departed the room, giggling as he sat there wrapped in white silk on the floor after his tumble, graciously carrying the tray of food and drink as if they never ate themselves.</p><p>Though both were lovely, he was never the type of man to partake in what they were offering, especially now with a lost lover on his mind and heavy on his heart. That was more like Lem, he thought, sadly. <em>When did I lose him to greed?</em> <em>Lem said it was when he figured out he killed Captain Harrus, but then how would he have been able to conspire with the Velaryon's before they departed on their journey? </em>In the end, it didn't matter. Lem died. He lived. And he lost everything, twice, partly because of his oldest and dearest friend.</p><p>"Now," Kiku said, stepping back and admiring her work, "take a look at yourself." Aegon stood up from the bench and walked over to the mirrored looking glass in this new noble room of his. Though his face was still shagged with a gruff growth well beyond stubble, he appeared every inch the noble. His silk robe felt like a cool breeze, swaying off him like an ocean gale. His hair was greased and pulled tight into an eastern top not, wrapped with a sash to match his robe, with the remaining hair on the sides combed straight and down to his shoulders. He looked like his name would matter, though in this place, the only memory of his ancestry was the philandering of a now dead sailor, who to these people was no more noble than a common merchant. But due to his recent act of valor, he was being asked to attend a council of leadership, and Kiku continued to remind him how honored he should be, and how honorable he should behave. "From what I know of you so far," she said with a hint of sarcasm, "if I do not warn you, you will dishonor us both. For that, I asked to accompany you, as I said you're grasp of our language is still too far from passable to be left alone."</p><p>"For that, my sweet aging flower," he said in their tongue, "I am grateful. I'd ask you to teach me the dirty things they may say about this white devil behind my back, but then I'm afraid I'd understand your filth as well."</p><p>"You'll figure it out soon enough. None of these are what I'd say are 'clever' men. They will see your pale skin and say all manner of things they assume you would never understand. Prepare to listen, and what you miss, I will explain later."</p><p>"Thank you, my teacher." She said something like: you can thank me, and then went into something he couldn't understand, but as old as she was, she deserved to think and say whatever she wanted.</p><p>Kiku fought hard, and won the argument as to what to do with his facial growth. Both agreed he couldn't be seen in a meeting of nobility with what currently garnished his strong jawline and pronounced cheekbones, but neither agreed on which way to go.</p><p>Aegon, still wishing to remain anonymous, wanted to leave a well-groomed beard and mustachio, the first he would have ever worn in his young life. Kiku remarked that the only acceptable fashion to wear amongst YiTi descendant Lengii nobles would be the traditional thin mustache, and pointed chin hair prevalently seen around the city and its outskirts, but it would make him look a fool, a jester in a court of men much uglier, and much more ignorant than a Dragon Lord, she said. "The reason you look as good as you do is how different you are from <em>them. </em>The hair is one thing. You look stunning, but the face would be altogether too much. Like you wanted to be one of them. You are much more than they will ever be. Let me uncover the beauty beneath this thicket. Let them behold the look of a true man, a dragon king." When she said 'dragon king' she smiled as if she knew. Maybe she did, but his purple eyes had always evoked thoughts of the Valyrians of Old. He let it pass without another thought.</p><p>When he stepped into the council room, recessed beneath the raised dais the magistrate's throne sat upon, the bustling and contentious conversation ceased immediately. Around a glistening black table of polished ebony, sat a group of Lengii aristocrats and leaders who all immediately glared at him as he entered. The silence was as thick as the air of Sothoryos, and the conversation seemed as if it wouldn't continue until the foreigner left their presence. If it wasn't for the magistrate himself standing up, clapping, and ceremoniously greeting his new hero, the rest of the faces fixated on him would have stared contemptuously for hours.</p><p>"Aegon, Aegon, Aegon! The Conqueror! As I believe you are named, welcome to these proceedings, and please, sit. Sit!" he said in Valyrian and motioned to the chair closest to him, which was empty, seemingly reserved for him. The magistrate turned to Kiku, saying in their tongue, "Please instruct him to behave himself. The council is already deeply disturbed that he is here."</p><p>"I've told him, and he has promised he would. Though as stupid as he is white, I cannot say he will do anything other than what his nature tells him to." The crowd chuckled at her words, which Aegon fully understood, but behaved as though he couldn't, adding his own uncomfortable chuckle, feigning ignorance to their tongue, to which the chuckles increased to some small roars, and the hearty laughter of one lord who seemed almost a foot and a half shorter than him.</p><p>"Now that he is here," the magistrate said, addressing his fellow noblemen in their tongue, "let us ask him what he saw, what he knows, and what he remembers about the night I was attacked in my bed, and ten other members of The Dragon Guard of Leng Ma were slaughtered."</p><p>Aegon told his recollection of the evening from the staircase when the had first heard the noises, to the moments before the magistrate fell back asleep, and he sat waiting for relief that would never come, because the next shift wouldn't report until the morning, and all the other active guards in the palace were killed moments before. He wanted with everything that was left in him, to follow the assassins and get more definitive answers, he explained, but a man of honor, he had sworn to protect the magistrate, and as the only guard left, he needed to remain exactly where he was. In the same room as his assignment, armed and ready, prepared for a second wave if there was to be one. No more ever came, and Aegon wished he could've pursued the assailants to understand more of what and why it had happened.</p><p>As he had told his story, Kiku translated his Valyrian into their tongue. She strictly instructed him to act as if he knew none of their language and that those in attendance understood all of what he said in Valyrian. "At least one, maybe all of these men know Valyrian. You must assume they do and do not slip. As ignorant as they are, they are not so devoid of cunning that they are in these positions of power for no reason at all. The things all these men can do is cheat, lie, and use others to fulfill their selfish needs and wants. Do not divulge anything, in jest or otherwise, that you wouldn't want an enemy to hear. Today, all are enemies until we know more of what has occurred."</p><p>A younger of the nobles, not more than ten years his elder, addressed Aegon in their tongue, which Kiku translated to, "How is it that you survived when all the other Dragon Guard were defeated?" Kiku didn't say the rest of what the man said, which was, "A white monkey like you, just weeks into your mandatory service, couldn't match the skill and strength of the famed Jade Dragon Guard of Leng Ma." The men at the table nodded at their fellow councilman's veiled insult, but did not laugh as to expose it.</p><p>Aegon answered, feigning ignorance, "Your honors, I am but a man serving his mandatory penance as a member of the lowly Azure Guard. I fought the men when they were in the magistrate's chambers the best I could. I was lucky, I guess. Three against one, and even the likes of me survived." He thought to himself to say <em>It must have been forty, fifty others to overwhelm the ten of your most elite fighters and guards. </em>But knowing his attitude would tip his advantage of feigned stupidity, he was content in playing the fool, and turning the man's hidden barb into a ridicule right back at him.</p><p>"What did these men look like? What do you remember of the men in the room?" another asked, more level headed and with less malice toward the outsider.</p><p>Kiku translated, and Aegon responded in Valyrian, "Their skin was a chocolate teak, and the one man's hair, the leader, was a black stripe down the middle of his head. All three stood above seven feet, thin and limber, and they wore dark red robes, wielding dark steel daggers."</p><p>Kiku translated, and the men in the room all roared with the same sound of disgust and disapproval. They began a discord in their own tongue, in response to his words. One man in a red and blue robe saying, "Of course it is Legs. They are the ones who wish death to our race."</p><p>Another man in purple and black injected his own discourse, "In red robes, it must be the Old Ones come again."</p><p>"No white sheep could survive an attack from the Old Ones," another claimed.</p><p>Aegon tried to follow each new interjection from the council. Each man around the table, save the magistrate himself, shouted his response in their tongue, adding a new layer of accusation or understanding of their attacker. Each new level of the story came so quickly, Aegon could no longer understand any of the words spoken, as they all became a jumbled array of loud foreign sounds.</p><p>"Enough!" the magistrate announced, halting the noise at once. "Before we continue our enthusiastic discussion," he said in their tongue, "I advise this council to extract all the necessary information from the only witness to the crime." The council grumbled obligatorily in response, and acquiesced to their superior's suggestion.</p><p>"Does anyone else have a question for this man?" he asked.</p><p>"I'll ask the pale hero a question or two," a man said seemingly from the rear of the room. He stood up, his lanky limbs extending from his hiding spot like a growing weed in a garden. He wore a silver and white robe, unassuming, and somewhat formless. He was the only man about the table, save Aegon, who did not look to be YiTi descendant. His skin was in the middle of a color, as if mixed with all the races of the known world, and his beady eyes were hard to see beneath the suspicious stare his face was fixed in. His long pointed nose stuck out like that of a weasel, thin and sharp like the edge of a dagger, and his hair was cut more in the Qartheen fashions he'd seen, than the YiTi way Kiku forced Aegon's own hair into. "My kind man, my name is Reamon Gardulos, but you can call me ReGar. I am but a humble servant to these most lordly of nobles," he said in Valyrian, "but as a member, nonetheless, of this council, I would like to know who our precious magistrate has put so much of his trust and faith into."</p><p>Aegon responded directly in Valyrian as Kiku struggled behind to translate each's words, "Though I am neither yours, nor kind, what would you like to know?"</p><p>"You say you are of Westeros, that you are a Velaryon named Aegon, yet, my sources that know of your land know nothing of you. Why would they say you are not who you are if you are who you say?"</p><p>"Knowing I'm from Westeros, you should know Valryian is not my native tongue, so, a question worded like that is far to confusing for the likes of me," Aegon said, with a smirk.</p><p>"Then who are you? Simply. Who are you if you are not claimed by your own kin?"</p><p>The magistrate stood, raising his hands, "Stop, ReGar. Enough of your suspicions. He explained it clear enough to me when he was first introduced to the court that he was hiding from the heritage you've sent agents out to inform you of. Men like you are the very reason men like him refuse to address me with their truth. He gave it to me despite his fears, and you prove him to be the more reasonable, as within weeks of his proceeding, you're already entrenched in suspicions against him. He saved my life, and was wounded in doing so. He has shown this land more loyalty than you ever have in your six and thirty years of life. Enough, then. That is enough, for all of you," he said, his tone shifting more vexed, as he continued to keep his low volume. "I bring forth the only witness of the crime, and the only thing you concern yourselves with is to ridicule and besmirch him in my presence," he said in their tongue, as Kiku remained silent, translating none of it. "We are all lucky this man happened to have stumbled drunkenly into our lands, or I would have been killed last night, and you would all be looking to a fool for leadership. This council is dismissed," he declared, as the noblemen around the table all dispersed. Aegon and Kiku began to stand, as if to exit themselves, until the magistrate stopped them, calling to Kiku in their tongue, "Tell him to stay. You as well. There's much to discuss."</p><p>When the room cleared, the magistrate finally raised from his chair and walked to the door as to lock it. He turned and bowed to Aegon and Kiku, and shuffled back over to his seat at the head of the table. He wore the same light blue colored robe, though this one was decorated with different shaped seashells filled with small gems, the same color blue as the silk.</p><p>He sat, adjusted himself in his seat, "These rooms are always so uncomfortable. I guess that is for the better. Men making difficult decisions must needs be a little uncomfortable, or they'd forever choose the easy way," the magistrate said, addressing Aegon in Valyrian.</p><p>"This room is comfortable enough. For me, anyway." Aegon said, in Valyrian.</p><p>"So it is. So it is," Kaono Soon said, smirking. "I see you have taken well to my Kiku. A trusted advisor she is, and always has been."</p><p><em>Advisor, </em>Aegon thought, <em>this old bird?</em></p><p>"Yes," she said in their tongue. "Advisor. He knows you know our tongue, enough. There is no need for your theatrics with the magistrate."</p><p>"Though, I will say," the Magistrate said, his hands clasped together on the table, his pointer fingers bouncing against each other in rhythm of his words. "You're answer to Lord Chahn was exquisite in its well-crafted brilliance. I hope it takes him long enough to figure out your grasp of our tongue so that another display of ignorance can be featured in the next meeting you attend."</p><p>"I appreciate your new found belief in me, your honor," Aegon said, in their tongue, "but the next meeting? What place does a man like me have in a room of people like that?"</p><p>"I know who you are, Aegon Velaryon. Many have heard of the Dragon King of Sothoryos."</p><p>Aegon was shocked to hear someone mention his exploits, especially worded like he was some legend from the stories. "What is this you speak of?"</p><p>"Don't play coy, boy. He knows, because <em>I </em>know. You think the only tongue I speak is Valyrian?" Kiku asked in Valyrian. Then, she switched to another tongue, "I speak the common tongue too, boy. And after hearing you bitch about how you went from the Dragon King of Sothoryos to a piss scrubbing bitch boy for a dress wearing noble, I went through my channels to find more of you." <em>Shit. That wasn't all she heard if she knows the common tongue. </em>She continued, "As a matter of fact," she said in her tongue, "I know the men of the ship that first picked you up from there. It's an absolute fact you're the man the locals there keep squawking about. Is it true you breathe fire?"</p><p>"No," <em>I only cannot be burnt by it whilst it empowers me magically is all.</em></p><p>"Well, stories are stories, but the facts are facts, you are the man they claim freed the slaves of those mines, and many say you defeated an entire army by yourself."</p><p>The magistrate re-entered the conversation, his hands still folded, his fingers still tapping, "And most importantly, you've shown honor, courage, and trustworthiness. Even if you <em>weren't </em>the descendants of Kings, which you are, you would have a noble place in this court, eventually."</p><p>"How did you. . ."</p><p>"Don't need worry yourself with what we know," the old woman said, touching his shoulder as if it would soothe the growing paranoia in his mind. <em>How do they know all they do? Who is this woman? </em>He shrugged away from her, feeling betrayed and informed upon. "Oh honey," she said in the common tongue, "Secrets are my way of life. No one has any that I don't know about, don't feel so violated. I've wished much worse violations on you in my head countless times, and the magistrate's not wise enough to know what I'm saying now," she turned to look at him, continuing in the common tongue, "he's a sexually driven fool, like the rest of them. Just the right tug in the right place, and you know everything you need to. You're different. You're not steered by the rudder between your legs. I thought for sure you'd fuck my girls senseless, in fact, I hoped you would, so they could describe the events for me later. Though they thought you charmingly damaged and hilariously clumsy, they were surprised you would apologize for forcefully touching them, then letting them go without so much as an ass grope. That's when I knew you were different."</p><p>"What about all the other times, my sweet wrinkling dusty flower?"</p><p>"Despicable or not, you are the essence of a female orgasm visually. I only began to like your character after knowing you wouldn't rape my girls."</p><p>Aegon shuttered inside himself hearing her vulgar words in a language he knew. It was fine when she spoke to herself in words he didn't know, but it affected him differently in the common tongue. The thought of her wrinkled skin passed what he could already see almost sickened him, but he laughed to himself after the initial disgust. <em>You foul woman. A female Lem.</em></p><p>"Okay, fine, I'm Drahkness Kahn to the Brindled Men of Sothoryos. What of it?" he said, addressing the magistrate in Valyrian as to avoid continuing the uncomfortable feeling between he and his language tutor and translator.</p><p>"A man in my position could use a man like you, your Grace," he said, smiling.</p><p>"If you believe I wish to go back to Westeros to seek my birthright, you are mistaken, your honor, and though I'm sworn to you, it is not my wish to become an instrument of conquest or destruction."</p><p>"No, no. You misunderstand me. Sure, I am ambitious, but it isn't destruction I seek. I am seemingly the only one in this land that seeks peace and unity, regardless of race or religion."</p><p>"How does that concern me, your honor? I am but one man, a worthless foreigner. How can you use me?"</p><p>"The men who surrounded me at this table could all have been the ones responsible for the attempt on my life. I believe that one, maybe all of them were somehow involved."</p><p>"Then why did you bring me before them?" Aegon asked.</p><p>"I wanted to see which would squirm, and which would sigh, when you said nothing to implicate them. A pity they <em>all</em> seemed to want to slander you out of my graces. A further shame the most memorable of slanders was from ReGar, whom I never trusted and could never read." The magistrate sighed himself, "They truly are a lot of useless fools. I couldn't even keep them civil enough to trick them."</p><p>A knock at the door startled the two elders, as Aegon turned to see the shortest nobleman enter the room, looking down at the floor in apparent reverence of his elder.</p><p>The magistrate scolded the man, annoyed by the sight of him, "I told you all to leave. You are worthless in this issue and I need no more council from the lot of you."</p><p>"Your honor," he said, his eyes still staring at his feet. "Grave news from the Capitol. If it wasn't of the utmost urgency, I would not have ever disturbed you."</p><p>The magistrate looked to Kiku and Aegon, "The rest of them were all too fearful to open the door they sent our lowest ranking official, the Keeper of Coin, back into to feel my wrath. I'm surrounded by craven ambitious fools, which shouldn't even make sense, and I can't trust a single one of them."</p><p>The man in the door remained frozen in a silent fear, never averting his gaze from the floor, unaware of the Valyrian words meant to ridicule him. "Your honor?" he asked sheepishly, as if he would stay frozen without divulging the urgent news until he was specifically bid to.</p><p>"Go on," Kaono said in their tongue. "Spill it. What's so damn urgent from the capitol?"</p><p>"Your honor," he said, looking up, his lip quivering. "The Goddess among Men, Khissara, is dead. She was murdered in the palace. The Elders have requested you leave for the capitol at once to investigate the circumstances of her assassination, and are present for the elevation of her eldest Lengii daughter, Khiana."</p><p>A grave silence filled the room as the two wrinkled faces that shared the table with him welled up in a visible sorrow. "Khissara is truly dead?" Kiku said in a voice above a whisper.</p><p>"She was found slain. The messenger said you and your traveling party must leave within the hour. Only your personal guards and attendants are permitted to enter the city gates. No Legs will be permitted through."</p><p>The magistrate turned to Aegon, his expression a forced authority, fighting to hide his emotions. He ordered Aegon in their tongue, keeping appearances in the presence of the short noble, "Prepare for travel, guard. It will be you who protects me from here out."</p><p>
  <strong>A/N</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>It is understandably hard to follow the politics of this place when they are not fully fleshed out yet in the work. All the details of the history of Leng that are important to understanding the current political and racial climate of this fictional world will be revealed, but I do have a companion piece, a very dry history of Leng, that I created to make this place and the politics make sense. If any of you reading want me to post that as a reference, I will, but if you feel it is just fine learning each new mystery as Aegon learns it, than I'm totally fine with that too. PM me.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>If you want the cliff notes, the YiTi descendant Lengii inhabit the two major cities of Leng, Leng Ma and Leng Yi (The Capitol), while the Native Lengii inhabit the southern wilderness and the city Turrani, located on the South Eastern Coast of the island.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>They are ruled by a Godess Empress, descendants from the woman Khiara the Great, who led the Lengii to freedom in their separation from YiTi, approximately 100 Years before Aegon's Conquest. The Old Ones, are a mythical underground race that wish the death of all foreign born people, four times asking for the genocide of foreigners before Khiara's rebellion. As a condition of their surrender, the YiTi Emperor ensured the continued safety of those YiTi that made homes on the island by requiring Khiara to close off the subterranean temple where the Old Ones dwell, and to never allow anyone in the underground temples again.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>This is the year 153 After Aegon's Conquest. A lot has changed in the years since the Lengii earned their freedom, and the Yits and Legs are in constant political and social competition for wealth, power, and influence.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Thanks again so much for reading. Let me know what you guys think so far with a comment or PM. I'll be updating as soon as I can.</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>4</p><p>The magistrate refused to travel by boat fearing another attack on the water. If the Goddess among Men were still alive, they could trust Shinsou Chi, the Goddess' second husband and Master of the Jade Sea to protect them, but with Khissara dead and her daughter Khiana most likely to be anointed and ascend, Shinsou's title was now only temporary. From what the magistrate and Kiku explained of the man, he would more probably renounced his duties, and retire to a life of whoring and a bottomless cup of soku well before he would provide a service for his land if not required to do so. "He was never a bad man, just a man of decadence. He cares less about the island than the strength of his morning soku according to some of my girls, he takes sips from four cups before he decides which is best," Kiku explained. She seemed to be intimately knowledgeable about anyone discussed in her presence. Aegon felt less violated after hearing each subsequent secret she seemed to know.</p><p>Instead, the magistrate insisted on traveling across the countryside. His route would follow the shore where a few small villages, allowing them to stop the progress along the way. Word of the Empress' death would soon reach both the wealthiest and lowliest of Lengii, and while the country was therefore leaderless, it was good to remind the small folk their overlords still had a presence to both enforce and protect them. Aegon thought it would make the magistrate appear as if he were celebrating the Empress' death. When Aegon suggested as much aloud, Kaono curtly clarified, "Boy, no matter what your moniker, do not presume to tell me of my people. They know why we travel, and that I would never do such a thing for sport. I disdain the road, and the litter more specifically, more than even your defiance after such a brief time since cleaning piss and shit off a floor. No one loved our empress more than I, save her two husbands that loved her in a different way," he said, turning his gaze away from Aegon as he finished, then pausing to catch his breath, and his composure. "No one is happy today, boy, except those that wish to destroy this land. We meet the people, not to celebrate, but to grieve collectively. She was beloved by all, Khissara, and all those who love a free Leng, wished for her peaceful rule to last as long as possible."</p><p>So, Aegon, the newly appointed Commander of the Dragon Guard, shadowed Jugo, now his subordinate, as the he ordered the guards to prepare for the road. Most of the Guard, along with some swords sworn to nobles that would accompany them, would escort the caravan against whatever threats awaited them on the jungle roads to Leng Yi. There, Kaono would join the Elders and Khissara's surviving husbands, the Masters of the Land and Sea and would discuss Khissara's murder, the assassination attempt of Kaono Soon, the future ascension of the Khissara's eldest native Lengii daughter Khiana, and the who would advise the young Empress in the new group of Elders and Masters.</p><p>After ten minutes shouting his orders to the Dragon Guard in Valyrian and hearing the cackling echo of Kiku Ma repeat his words behind him in their tongue, Malhada, he turned to his Jugo and said "Enough of this farce, Captain. You are now promoted to Commander, again. See to it that the men . . . do what needs be done. I will personally appoint myself to protecting the magistrate. If you need anything, I will be protecting him." He spoke in Valyrian to continue his deception.</p><p>"If you just ended this farce of not speaking our tongue," Jugo said, smirking for maybe the first time in his life, "you could be the one to tell the men where to stand and what shit to pack," Jugo whispered, in Malhada.</p><p>"True," Aegon responded in Malhada, "but then you would be a Captain again, and not a Commander. . . again." Jugo smiled more as a captain, but Aegon knew the man would not be truly happy until his face was stone and stern again.</p><p>"Your orders are received and will be followed, your honor," Jugo said officially, erasing any evidence of humor or happiness from his face.</p><p>Aegon rushed away from the barracks to gather his own things from his new apartments. Kiku left to prepare herself for the journey as Aegon began to climb the marble steps that led to the palace chambers. He had so few items of importance, but couldn't leave them in a place he might never return. There was only the dirk and the amulet from the red woman which he kept hidden sewn into the jahkyar cloak. The ragged hyde was so worn and tattered, no one thought to ever pick it up to inspect, so it was well suited for hiding such a rare and valuable looking gem. Aegon still didn't know what the amulet was for, but something in his gut made him keep it, for when he or if he ever did.</p><p>With so many of the guard dead, there was little choice in which members of the Dragon Guard were to accompany them to Leng Yi, other than the only Native Lengii member of the Guard, a young man name Xolo Nan Reemus, who would not be allowed per the orders of the messenger. Save him, the entire ranks of the Guard, Azure and Jade, would be considered, and most would be brought with them on their progress.</p><p>Aegon knew only few of his fellow guards by face, and none other than Jugo by name, so he entrusted his newly re-promoted Commander to choose who to bring, and who should stay. His only advice to him was to assign loyal ones to the caravan, but the most loyal to stay and ensure peace while the magistrate was away. The magistrate refused to call further men to arms for his progress, entrusting the safety of the city to the nobles who were more than willing to offer their men to serve under the Guards left in charge. Aegon wasn't a political man in any sense, but he knew people. While he was thinking about it, he remembered something the Captain said to him in his lessons as a child, "In the real world, whether it's a Triarch, or a khal, or a Lord, or a King, if there's no physical ass in a throne, boy, every one within arm's reach of it's gonna try and take himself a seat." Here, it was the magistrate's ornate chair, but he felt the logic applied the same. Kiku agreed, and Jugo knew who to assign what post and position.</p><p>Aegon scraped through his room, looking for something other than his official guard armor to wear, but his new quarters were full of nothing but the silky robes like he wore the day in the council meeting. He refused to wear a garment like that ever again, as comfortable as it was, he looked ridiculous. He felt content in learning to live with the weight of the armor.</p><p>He sheathed his dirk and buckled it to his left hip. "You're all I'll ever need, my sweet darling, but it couldn't hurt to have a blade or two more to lessen your load a bit, could it?" Assuming the answer he desired, he made his way to the armory with the dirk on his hip and the rolled cloak under his elbow. <em>I pack light. </em>He thought, and winced realizing why. <em>I lost everything.</em></p><p>Descending the cool marble stairs, his new boots tapping with each step, he crossed the throne room and exited into the palace yard, towards where the remaining official buildings were erected with much less decoration and color. Four limestone structures stood in a line, as if formation, in which Aegon knew the purpose of three. One was the Azure Guard barracks. Two of the others were the official armory, and stables.</p><p>When he reached the armory, the attending armorer was fending off the other guardsmen who would be joining the journey, themselves looking for new steel to defend them from unnamed dangers of the road. Kiku was off packing her own things, which she made to sound like an extensive process, so he sighed, realizing he'd have to somehow communicate with this man in the loud armory, without a translator or the Malhada words he knew but couldn't say in front of any of his men. <em>It might be easier to just pick up the weapon of the first man I kill.</em></p><p>He approached the armorer, a stout YiTi descendant Lengii with an island of thin black hair on the front of his head surrounded by a lagoon of scalp before his hair picked up again. His wide jaw was impressive broad, but the flabby skin that folded around it made his face look more soft than strong, and his breathing was heavy even after only speaking. As Aegon got closer, he could hear the armorer yelling to each Guard that approached him, taking a breath in between each sentence, "No new steel. . . No officer steel. . . .You give me your blade, I can sharpen it quick,. . . . but no new steel. . . . No officer steel." Aegon knew as much in Malhada, which would make it all the more vexing when he could just simply say who he was and pick which ever blade he wanted, but the farce needed to continue. <em>Here goes.</em></p><p>Aegon approached the counter where the wide man was leaning against it, entrusting all of his immense weight. He locked eyes with the man as he was gasping for air, and he said in Valyrian, "Please, I am an officer of the Guard, I need two double edged blades and sheaths."</p><p>The armorer looked back at him with confusion and disgust, "What the fuck did you just say, devil? Is that some kind of curse?"</p><p><em>That escalated quickly, </em>"No," he said in Malhada. "Sorry." Aegon looked around to see if anyone was close enough to hear him just quickly explain himself in Malhada without betraying his pretense of ignorance. When he turned, a man appeared so quickly from nowhere it startled him. From the middle of the crowd, ReGar, the weasel from the council meeting, slithered through the crown, nudging in next to Aegon as if he was summoned for official business with the new commander of the Dragon Guard of Leng Ma. Aegon still didn't know if ReGar had an official title other than a name shortened to sound like a dragon rider.</p><p>"I'm sorry to have startled you," he said in Valyrian, reaching out a limp hand to exchange greetings, "though, you didn't seem to be so easily flustered in the council chambers." Aegon reached out his own hand and gripped ReGar's in response. One of them, it seemed, did not know the proper custom, as the greeting felt awkward and poorly done. The entire interaction was all together too unsettling for Aegon to even respond with more than a nod and grunt, holding back fiery words of malice he would later regret and be scolded for. ReGar filled the silence with more words, "Don't be shy on my account. You can tell him what you need to in our tongue. I know you speak it. Well, I know you know enough to tell this man what you need."</p><p>"Excuse me?" Aegon said in Valyrian, the blood in his veins bubbling as he fought slight urges to choke this vermin as the man was almost certainly trying to provoke him. <em>Something about this man makes my skin crawl.</em></p><p>"Never mind, friend," <em>I'm not your friend </em>Aegon thought. "Let me translate for you while our friend Kiku is not here. I know she's been teaching you our tongue for moons now, it seems. I just thought, as good a teacher as she, you would have learned <em>at least</em> 'Get me that steel."</p><p>Aegon gulped and clenched his jaw, trying to swallow the feelings of angst this man seemed to ignite within him. "I guess I'm too dense a pupil to have learned, . . . I'm sorry, what is your title? I'm not sure how to address you."</p><p>"You can call me, ser, if you wish, though only to honor your Westerosi heritage."</p><p>"You are no knight."</p><p>"A knight, as you say, no. I am not. Though I am what in Leng we call Sheehin. It is an order of swordsmen here, dating back to Ancient times. Before there were Yits and before there were Legs, there was Lengii, and it is said that we are descendant from Hyrkoon the Hero himself, though, by now, we all know that these are mostly children's stories. Tales of heroes that save worlds from villians, all so childish, no?"</p><p>"Whatever you say, Sheep shin. As for my request, let him know I need two dual edged blades, light enough for one handed combat. Thank you."</p><p>ReGar smiled devilishly, as he most certainly enjoyed such a tawdry exchange of banter. He turned to the armorer, seemingly defeated, only to turn bak to Aegon, retorting in Malhada, "Make a fool out of young Lord Shunak, but you will not make a fool out of me, dragon king" sealing it with another more devious grin.</p><p>Aegon knew he couldn't respond with anything other than, "Excuse me?" as the almost grey skinned pseudo nobleman spoke to the armorer, saying "Do you know who this is? This is the new Commander of the Dragon Guard, he's the hero that saved the magistrate. Let him behind your counter so that he can arm himself to protect His Honor, Kaono Soon!"</p><p>The armorer ushered Aegon back as ReGar poked his nose almost between them, saying in Valyrian, "Do you need me to continue to translate, your Honor?" <em>That's right. Say my title.</em></p><p>"We can take it from here, Sheep Shin. I'll just point and he'll grab me the ones I need. Thank you."</p><p>"I'm going to be needing his help next," he slipped behind the counter and continued to walk with them uninvited. "I will be joining you on the road with twenty of my finest men to protect His Honor. I need a new blade myself, though I had already commissioned one about a moon ago, so I believe it is here and ready, hopefully you don't choose it by mistake, I'd have to allow you the honor of wielding it, a hero of your stature." Aegon tried to ignore ReGar, but his words continued to pour out as if Aegon was trying to plug holes in a sinking boat. For every sentence he somehow managed to avoid, another would immediately leave his lips, pricking his nerves and patience like the thorns of a bush blocking his way.</p><p>"Why decide to join us?" Aegon asked unable to distance himself much from his current annoyance.</p><p>"I was personally invited by the magistrate himself. Of course I will not be attending any meetings once in Leng Yi, for my influence is only restricted to Leng Ma, I fear, but I will accompany His Honor nonetheless."</p><p><em>Kaono doesn't want to leave this rat in his city without him. Neither would I. </em>"Well, good luck. I will surely see you on the road." Aegon said, turning his back to ReGar, focusing on the wall of swords.</p><p>"You most surely will."</p><p>Aegon wasn't familiar with the shapes of these blades, but he could mostly tell by the gauge and length which would be easily wielded and twirled with only one hand. He chose a matching pair of straight, sturdy, jet black blades, similar enough to the bastard blades of Westeros he'd first learned with, but just a bit lighter. It didn't hurt that the pommel of each sword were twin twisting dragons, which looked more Valyrian than Eastern. <em>My kind of dragon. </em>They were perfect for what they'd need to do, or near enough it wouldn't matter for the foe he'd face.</p><p>"A good choice, Your Honor." Regar said. Aegon ignored him, received them from the armorer, and sheathed them, buckling one to each hip.</p><p>"Good day, Sheep shin. I cannot chat any further. Official work to attend to," he said in Valyrian, departing the armory as quickly as he could through the crowd. He heard the weasel retort, but ignored it as it his voice dissipated into the surrounding bustle.</p><p>He needed only to saddle up a horse and ride out to where the magistrate's litter was being prepared. Aegon couldn't handle litters. Not since leaving Winterfell all those years ago did he ever even step foot near one, much less in one. All he could imagine was the helpless feeling of flight, running from threats he only knew now, a man grown and wanted dead by his kin.</p><p>The stables were just as crowded, though less of his fellow guards were around to hear his new tongue. ReGar was certainly not. Aegon had to walk around the entire stable twice before feeling confident the slithering Sheep shin wouldn't sprout from the beaten ground beneath him. He spoke to a stable boy in Malhada, asking for a horse, "fit for the new commander of the Dragon Guard."</p><p>"Is that you," the young boy, no older than eight, asked? "They said he was Valyrian, though, you only have the eyes."</p><p>"It is I, the Valyrian you speak of," he said taking a supposed hero's stance in jest with the lad. "What do you have for me? It is a long journey and I need something fast and strong."</p><p>"Well, strong is here. That's a tahki. Sherle, we call him. He ain't too quick though, but he's not scared of shit," the boy said, peddling the horses like a seasoned merchant. <em>He's leading up to "the best horse ever" and he's going to ask for a lot of coin for it too.</em></p><p>"Fast, is here. This is a Zohn Zo. It's the striped thing the Jogos N'hai breed to make zorses. They're strong too, but stubborn, and skittish. That's Tohtoh. He's what you need, if you were willing to tame him."</p><p>The boy continued past a black steed, "What about him?" Aegon asked.</p><p>"That's Jugo Soon's horse, Black." <em>Why expect a more poetic name? Here's your horse Jugo, what will you name it? Black, for it is black. </em>Aegon thought he could play a joke on his Captain and Commander, but decided otherwise.</p><p>"Boy, just show me the "best" horse you want to sell me. Don't waste my time, I've haggled before."</p><p>"Ay yai yai. What? Are you in some rush? There's options in my stable."</p><p>"Yes, I'm to leave as soon as possible. What do you have?"</p><p>They walked to the back of the stable and around a shallow corner, the boy grinning with pleasure in himself as he felt his pitch working. He stood before the stall and pointed. "Him," he said, and smiled.</p><p>Aegon looked at the beast with wonder and awe. It was tall, lean, and golden brown. Its dark eyes peered down at him with pride, and its smooth sheened black mane was cropped short and twisted into tight braids. "What manner of horse is this?"</p><p>"It's a Teke Teke, a rare breed from deep in Leng. They're faster and stronger than anything in here, and they live to ride. For the new Commander of the Dragon Guard," <em>here it comes </em>Aegon thought, "I'll let you have him for only two hundred golden Khiaras."</p><p>"Bill the magistrate. He'll pay." Aegon said, handing the boy a parchment with his official seal. The boy took it, begrudgingly, knowing he'd have to wait for his gold, and led the Teke Teke out of its stall, saddled it up, and handed the reigns to Aegon.</p><p>"I call him Lemon, cuz he's yellow like one."</p><p>"I'd call him Lem, but that's taken. I'll think of name soon."</p><p>"Don't wait too long. They say its bad luck to ride a horse without a name."</p><p>"What kind of a name is Black?"</p><p>"Has Jugo been lucky as of late? He just received that horse." The kid had a point. Jugo had been mostly disgraced after being left alive by the assassins. Many whispered that he had something to do with it, though, no one that ever heard him speak would ever believe such outlandish lies. Jugo lived <em>only </em>to protect his grandsire's life. Aegon would more readily believe ReGar was a hardened warrior.</p><p>"Thanks, kid." Aegon mounted his horse, and it instinctively knew when to begin trotting without a kick or sound from his rider. "Good boy," Aegon said. "Good boy."</p><p>He approached the gates in which those departing were gathering before setting off into the jungle roads. The caravan seemed entirely too large for the trip, but Aegon knew nothing of how long it would take or what would face them along the way. He trusted the judgement of Jugo, and the magistrate himself, so he said little and thought even less about it, mumbling to himself in the common tongue to vent his frustrations with such a strange world.</p><p>Towards the front was a litter of lesser dignitaries, ReGar, and two other noblemen, most likely similarly thought of by the magistrate, who brought his untrustworthy friends with him, and was serving them as the first course to anyone who thought to attack them as the first target they'd see. <em>He plays this game well, </em>Aegon thought. <em>If I were to learn, I could have much worse examples.</em></p><p>Towards the back were carts of food and wine, which to Aegon looked enough to last a small village an entire moons turn, but Kiku explained that's precisely what the magistrate intended. "Those stores are not just for this retinue, they are for the places we stop as <em>gifts."</em></p><p>Leaving, "as soon as possible," still took the rest of that entire day, almost until the sun had already set. As the question of whether they would still leave enough grew from a small whisper to the consensus of the rumbling crowd, the magistrate addressed their concerns saying, "The progress will continue. That is why our guards are here. We will be mostly safe," he urged, sounding as confident as a virgin boy in a brothel.</p><p>ReGar was thankfully no where in sight as the progress began, though it seemed his men surrounded them on all sides. As sneaky as he was, Aegon half expected ReGar's men to turn on the caravan, betray and kill the rest of them, and blame raiders as they made off with the plunder. But as they trotted slowly through the darkening jungle roads, his men seemed less interested than even the Jade Guard, or what was left of the nobles who served mostly for show. To a man, every living member of the Jade Guard volunteered to stay in Leng Ma. All but one was chosen for the journey, and each looked either scared or sullen at the prospects of having to do anything other than wear the ceremonial uniform and brag about their status to whores.</p><p>Aegon kept his eye on the magistrate's litter, dismounting his new horse, every chance he got to peak his head in to see what the man was doing. Kaono hated litters. He said as much, and Aegon wanted to make sure he didn't decide to start riding a horse instead. He took the magistrate's safety as serious as all but Jugo, as he was growing to admire the elderly official for his character and the status he had given him. Aegon had never been a noble before, and was relishing the sweet taste of privilege he always deserved by right, but had never tasted until now. <em>Careful, </em>he thought to himself. <em>Don't become one of them now that you finally are.</em></p><p>As the glittering city behind them faded into the horizon, and more and more trees huddled near and around the road they traveled, the sun dropped lower and lower in the darkening sky. The way the deep green broad leaves hung down overhead, as they seemingly crossed where civilization ended and the wilderness began, it felt as if the trees were reaching down to grab them. Soon, the forest darkened deeper, the dense foliage filtering out the light of the gleaming full moon to the chorus of a hundred monkeys in the canopy. There yellow eyes bounced back and forth above the caravan in the darkness, as they called their hoots and yells to each other.</p><p>Lomas Longstrider had said Leng was the home to ten thousand tigers and ten million monkeys. The monkeys were clear enough to see even just into the forests. Aegon just hoped the tigers would keep their distance. <em>I was lucky with the jahkyar, and those are supposedly half the size.</em></p><p>The guards riding horseback around the perimeter of the caravan held lanterns to light the way for the carts, carriages, and litters as they continued their progress through the night. If ever there was a time their new enemies would attack, it would be here, now. Deep in a forest most among them were unfamiliar with, tired from travel, and predictably located, on the only road that seemed paved enough to take to the capitol. Aegon remained alert, assuming each next moment was the moment they'd strike.</p><p>Wheels turned and horseshoes clopped, as the caravan plodded slowly through the darkest hours of the night, each crack of a twig and sway of a branch above startling the horsed guards into a fighting stances. Each perceived threat was soon found to be wildlife, mostly the damn monkeys, but each new noise elicited the same response from each guard.</p><p>Just before dawn, the magistrate peaked out and ordered the caravan to stop. When each carriage, cart, and litter came to a halt, he announced that they would be adjusting their course, veering down a smaller road, toward the coastline, to visit a village that was less than a mile away called Mulgogi, or Fishtown. "We will rest there for the remaining darkness and break our morning fast with the villagers." Groggy and weary from the road, all easily followed the new orders, thankful for rest that seemed in sight, and the chance to get off the dangerous road. Aegon remained cautious thinking it a waste of time to stop. <em>There's only a few hours until sunrise. Stop now, and the progress won't continue until afternoon at the earliest. More likely early evening.</em></p><p>The village was where he said it would be, thought the road to it was harder than any expected to travel over, and one of the food carts almost broke an axle on the rocky overgrown path. When they reached where the forest cleared into the coastal village it was completely quiet, as if not a soul lived in the run down straw huts and longhouses that were crudely built, but standing, either just up to the shoreline or floating above the surf, anchored on piers deep into the sand below. The daub and waddle structures led to a small village square, a walkway of reeds and palms that wrapped around a tall tree, ribbed at the top, with broad frayed leaves and what looked like a round red fruit that grew at its highest point.</p><p>Jugo dismounted and entered the largest of the huts through a folding grass door that rolled up to enter underneath. Soon, another elderly YiTi descendant looking man came to greet the caravan, speaking Malhada softly, as if trying not to wake his village. He said for the litters to be placed down and the remaining men to find places to settle where there was open space, for their was no building or hut unoccupied that could house them. Some of the Jade Guard were incensed with the lack of hospitality, one brave enough to bring up the perceived slight to the magistrate himself saying, "If these paupers have no where to house us nobles, they should offer their own beds for our comfort."</p><p>The magistrate replied, "Find one and you may have his house, but if you decide to take his, I will offer your residence in Leng Ma as recompense." The guard stormed away, steaming like a tea kettle, and eventually found a spot in the sand where the other guards had already taken as their designated barracks for the evening. All were asleep within what seemed like minutes after their arrival, and Aegon entered the Magistrate's litter to see that he was comfortable and safe.</p><p>In the darkness, as Aegon approached the litter, the magistrate slipped his head out and whispered in Valyrian, "Get your horse, we go now."</p><p>"What?" Aegon whispered back.</p><p>"We'll leave these leeches to enjoy their progress. Kiku will see to it that the common folk receive the food and wine. I have a pack here with enough provisions for the two of us to make it to Leng Yi without them. I will leave my grandson here as my official envoy, and have him explain why we left. His horse is the fastest in Leng, and yours might be the second fastest by the looks of it. What did you name such a fine beast?"</p><p>"I haven't yet."</p><p>"Please do. You have until we reach the gates. By then, we might need as much good luck as we can get," his mouth, framed with lines of age, spread as if he were enjoying himself. "Come, dragon king. We will race to the city. It may take a day, but with this train of baggage carts and useless nobles, it could take two weeks." The magistrate crept through the darkness to Black, his grandson's horse, loaded his sack onto his saddle, and mounted the horse to leave. Aegon quickly jumped on the teke teke, and followed, trotting slowly and instinctively through the village back to the road.</p><p>By the time they reached the road, the sun started to seep through the dense canopy, and the hum of an array of insects filled the jungle with the songs of a thousand tiny minstrels. They trotted slowly at first, trying to hide the sound of their horses' hooves clopping on the hard, dry ground, but with the side path in the distance behind them, they kicked their horses into a run, the animals under them stretching out their strides until each was in a full gallop, the horses instinctively racing each other.</p><p>The wind rushed through Aegon's hair, now down again. He vowed never to wear it like Kiku had done it for the council, though he feared he'd be asked to break the vow as soon as they arrived to the capitol. The horses speeding them through the dim forest, bounding and galloping below them, Aegon and Kaono laughed aloud and joyfully. It must have been exciting for the old man, sneaking away from his own retinue, like skipping sellswords from a company, both gleeful and half guilty leaving people behind.</p><p>An arrow flew past them, zipping loudly enough by Aegon's ear he immediately perked up out of his childish stupor, and began to take action to block arrows coming toward the magistrate, with his own body if need be. They cleared the range of the initial archer in a heartbeat, but the treeline was littered with another each twenty or so feet, hiding in the shadows of the trunks, and now, loosing arrow after arrow at the two rogue travelers.</p><p>"Duck, your honor. Stay low, I'll steer the steed." Aegon yelled, kicking the teke teke into full gallop, as the golden stallion accelerated even faster, leaving the black steed in the kicked up dust of each stride.</p><p>"Name that horse!" the magistrate yelled and Aegon noticed the separation. He gently reared back, to allow the magistrate catch up, and the horses knocked into each other with a crash, momentarily crushing Aegon's left leg between their colliding shoulders. Aegon winced, then smacked the black steed to run in front , scanning to see if any more arrows came.</p><p>The arrows had ceased, and the horses kept running, sprinting full speed towards Leng Yi. His breath was heavy, as was Kaono's, as the horses continued pace. With the attack behind them, Aegon allowed the golden horse to speed up, leaving Jugo's Black in another cloud. The magistrate, shaken, but recollecting his usual stoic composure, yelled something to Aegon in Malhada. Aegon hadn't learned the word he kept yelling.</p><p>He slowed down, to allow Black to catch up. "Paluen." He said. "Paluen."</p><p>"What does 'paluen' mean?" Aegon asked in Valyrian.</p><p>"Fast," the magistrate said. "That horse is Fast."</p><p><em>Naming horses shit names must run in the family. </em>"I'll call him Pal," Aegon said.</p><p>"Now that your horse is named, maybe we'll have better luck."</p><p>
  <em>Or maybe we have such bad luck because that damned horse you're riding is named so poorly.</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>5</p><p>That whole morning they rode as hard as they could, stopping once only to allow the horses to catch their breath and drink from a running stream. After Sothoryos, Aegon was hesitant to drink water in the wild, but Kaono assured him saying, "all the water of Leng is safe. You're no longer in the Green Hell." Though he was never truly in the "Green Hell" which to the best of his limited knowledge was hundreds of miles south of the northern shore he explored, the forest did appear to be much different than his previous experience with a strange jungle.</p><p>The trees here grew dense and twisted too, but they stayed stagnant, unlike the moving limbs of Sothoryos. Each tree reaching to the canopy and each shrub stretching across the forest floor looked to have been there since before man roamed these woods. There was an old almost ancient air to the flora, more worn than luscious, the colors more classic than vibrant, and even the ground beneath them looked to have been trudged over far too long to expect new growth. Taupe stringy vines connected tree to tree above them, and the little monkeys that seemed to clutter the canopy matched the air of the surroundings, some of their heads and cheeks crested with gray and white fur, giving them the appearance of being elderly.</p><p>He could see birds with huge colorful beaks, roused in their nest by their horses, peer down at he and Kaono, as their steeds' thunderous hooves pounded the ground racing past below. Flying insects, both of the beautiful and the bothersome variety fluttered and buzzed around, looking for the sparsely spaced flowers in this section of the woods. In the distance, they heard a call, from what Kaono described as a "small shadow cat," with black fur and orange eyes that were prevalent in these parts. "What about the tigers?" Aegon asked.</p><p>"They're getting harder and harder to find, at least in this section of Leng," Kaono replied. "Many a foreign noble come here only to find and kill them. The striped beasts have either receded further into the wood for safety or their numbers are in such decline as to make them a rare site." Aegon felt both relief and pity. A shame such beautiful beasts attract such ugly attention.</p><p>The forest was otherwise a pleasant ride, at first, when the sun was still low in the sky. However, by midday, the hot sun burning over the tangled forest started to redden his forearms and baked the thick air around them into a stew of sweat and a heavy heat. His leather armor slid back and forth on his body, now covered in a slick of moisture either in the air itself or from his pores, his entire body soaked as if he'd gone overboard at sea. He was in the middle of a jungle, so the feeling of being submerged in salty water, was peculiar to say the least.</p><p>He could feel his small clothes welling up with wetness, and his brow needed constant attention to keep the stinging sweat from his eyes, as the horse beneath him galloped, and the jungle around them raced past, almost a blur as he focused on the barely beaten path they traversed.</p><p>The heat of Sothoryos never truly bothered him. Heat, in any form, never really did anywhere. The hottest summer days barely even caused him to sweat. He never fully knew, but his Valyrian blood was resistant to the heat's effects. But here, with the water in the air and its oppressive weight, he was as uncomfortable as if they were trudging through a shoulder high swamp in the Neck of Westeros, almost struggling to breathe in his heavy sweat soaked armor and chaffing small clothes. His only relief was the rushing wind as he and his new horse, Pal, cut through the air like his dirk through Irahk.</p><p>Little and less was said between the two travelers while on horseback save the quick clarifications Aegon asked Kaono whenever the road forked or turned in a way that felt potentially off course. During their infrequent stops throughout the first day, some words were exchanged, but the magistrate seemed distant, distraught, and Aegon didn't know the tact to take consoling him.</p><p>The news of the Empress' death hit him hard, it seemed. Anyone he'd seen hear the news for the first time, to a person and despite their station, had all wept. Every eye dropped at least one tear for their sovereign leader, which seemed a rarity. But to Aegon, the magistrate's pain looked to be more personal, as if she were kin to him, or something like that. The people of this land worshipped her, served her without hesitation, and mourned her, but Kaono grieved as though he loved her, and Aegon could see by the blankly pale face he wore on Jugo's horse, Black, for the majority of their journey. Her death was taking a much harsher toll on him than the rest of her Grace's citizens.</p><p>When night came, and the oppressive weight of the hot thick air had lifted, the cool breezes in the light of the moon seeping through his armor and chilling his slick body almost to a shiver, Kaono decided they should try to make camp somewhere soon. They were both exhausted, and according to the magistrate, still had a day and a half left on their ride to the capitol city of Leng, Leng Yi.</p><p>"I thought you'd say it would take a day?" Aegon asked, grateful but weary of their plan to rest.</p><p>"I exaggerated," he responded in Valyrian. He tried to crack his sarcastic smile, but it lacked the full biting punch that made it effective. "In two days, you'll be sitting in the finest bath house this side of the Dothraki Sea, full of the most exotically beautiful women in the world," Maybe still alive Aegon thought. Kaono continued, "We make camp. Rest. Eat, and then at first light, we ride. Don't you get tired Dragon King?"</p><p>"The past moon or so, your grandson taught me to function on less and less rest. It's a good thing he did or I would have never made it even half as far in the state I was in."</p><p>Kaono, seemingly intimately familiar with these woods and each path on the road to Leng Yi, led them through a small side path in the brush, to a clearing that seemed to be manmade. When he reached it, he dismounted his horse with surprising grace for his age, and tethered Black to the lone thin tree standing next to a group of large stones arranged in what looked a manmade formation.</p><p>The night was calm and still, and the surrounding clearing seemed as serene a place as a person could find in this world. Nervous, Aegon scanned the edge of the clearing to ensure they wouldn't be ambushed. He saw nothing, though he still decided to circle where the magistrate was walking towards to make extra sure it was safe.</p><p>Kaono reached the rocks and stood in the middle of the formation, closed his eyes, took in a deep breath, and smiled. No words were said, and Aegon followed his lead, hitching his own new horse to another tree, closer to the edge of the clearing, dismounting and walking towards the magistrate with the bag of provisions they carried and his water skin, now empty again, to where Kaono was now sitting, leaning against one of the rocks.</p><p>"Sit, young man. Sit. You can start a fire, but that would only bring unwanted attention," he said, patting the ground next to him as if Aegon were a dog he was calling. The damp forest floor echoing and wet splat on the mud Kaono hit to summon Aegon over.</p><p>"I've learned the same, Your Honor, and I feel it safest if we retire without a fire. The moon is bright enough, and the clearing allows us good lines of sight if there were to be any that meant us harm. I will take the first watch, until I can no longer stay awake. Then, you will allow me some rest, and when the sun rises, we will continue towards the city."</p><p>"Good, good. But first, we eat and drink. Fetch me that extra skin on the back of my grandson's horse," Kaono said.</p><p>Aegon returned with what Kaono later described as soku, but in a more "wine-like" form. He claimed this batch would not be as potent as the other more common brews in the winesinks on the outskirts of the city. "Don't get me wrong, my friend," he said after a few gulps and time enough for the drinks to hit him, "I've frequented the same shitty cesspools, I mean their product no disrespect. But this vintage is of one of the finest in all of Leng, and I keep it close when I deem the timing right for an indulgence of such a fine drink."</p><p>Without more than a few grunts and a smile, Aegon indulged the elder statesman and gulped the soku down with him. "I thought you didn't want your guards drunk on the job?" Aegon asked.</p><p>"You're not and never were just another guard, are you? I've always sensed you were something more, hearing your story and hearing your honesty. You live as if you have little to fear. You live as if the events of your life are destined. Something in you knew I wouldn't kill you if you admitted you'd killed those men somewhat needlessly. Then, after Kiku sent out her silent servers to find answers about who you were and what your story was, my impression was confirmed."</p><p>Aegon curiously asked, "Who is Kiku that she could so quickly and easily find out my past when I've told nothing to anyone?"</p><p>"One thing people love to talk about over and over are the exploits of a hero. Kiku has been a great many things in her life, one of them being the head of the Silent Seventy-Six. Her girls heard stories of the man who saved the miners from the Basilisk Isles to Asshai by the Shadow," he confessed naturally, then grabbed his mouth as if he meant to catch his words and bring them back.</p><p>"What the fuck is the silent seventy-six? Sounds much too formal for our lovely Kiku."</p><p>He grinned, paused, and asked, "What, if anything at all do you know about our great land?"</p><p>Aegon felt a rush in his head. He wasn't sure if it was the soku, which slid down his throat like fresh water, or the embarrassment of having to tell this man, who seemed to only live to best serve his land, that he knew nothing of it. "I know of its beauty, its currents, and that whatever the fuck this drink is, is better than even the finest wines of Westeros. Save that, I know nothing."</p><p>"More honesty. Good. If you've never heard whispers of the silent seventy-six, you've never heard a word of our culture, history, or politics, and for that, I am surprisingly thankful," he said.</p><p>"You're welcome for my ignorance," Aegon replied, himself smiling an idiotic grin he couldn't help but form on his relaxed face, his mouth still tingling from the most recent gulp of the drink.</p><p>"Since you know nothing, let me teach you what Kiku should have been teaching you from the start. First, as a Velaryon, let me tell you of your great grandsire, Corlys Velaryon."</p><p>"The Sea Snake," Aegon blurted uncontrollably. He immediately regretted his words.</p><p>"A most slithery snake he was," Kaono replied, his tone changing from reminiscent bliss to harsh venom in an instant. "My aunt, Ray Soon, was promised to a Leg noble, Lexin Nan Ko. Though he was an elder man, he was well respected in Leng, amassed wealth enough to become powerful, and wished to wed a Yit noblewoman to promote diversity and inclusion in both the eyes of the common folk and the Yit and Leg nobles that have always seemed to be at odds against each other. At the time, my aunt was young, I believe either six and ten or the oldest eight and ten, and here came into port, a foreign sailor, his ships bursting with the wealth of the known world, looking to increase upon his building fortunes in our lands." He stopped to adjust his posture, turning to look Aegon in the eyes as he finished. "That wretched man met with Lexin, to trade for jade and sapphires, in which Lexin made his wealth, and in so doing, met my aunt, charmed her, bed her, and left her shamed and disgraced."</p><p>Aegon felt guilt, though he could be blamed for nothing that was described. He pondered it, and thought to say, "Though I choose to carry the last name, as it confirms my lawful heritage, my father's name could just as well be Waters or Strong," or Targaryen Aegon thought, "Jacaerys Velaryon, by all accounts, wasn't Corlys' grandson, because Corlys' son, Laenor, laid with men, and not women." He hoped it would ingratiate himself with the magistrate better than the descendant of an enemy.</p><p>"So, chances are, you're not of the stock of such a villainous louse?"</p><p>"I do like the name, though. The words, not as much as my grandmother's, but the name, I believe, I've earned by now."</p><p>"The name is fine enough. Your actions have already proved the better to that of the man Corlys of that name. Anyway, my second lesson to you, is of the Turrani Rebellion which occurred now three and thirty years ago, in the year you Westerosi call the one hundred and twentieth year since Aegon's Conquest of your kingdoms. At the time, the Empress of Leng was named Kheekara, and she was accused of taking a Yit lover and having a baby by him instead of her two husbands. Her Lengii husband, Syrus Nan Rees, was said to be unable to have children, though all this is lies and conjecture, so when she birthed a daughter supposedly through their union of holy bodies, the new babe, a girl, secured the legacy of pure blood Leg to be anointed and ascend upon her death. She had the girl around one hundred years after the conquest, and she was still a young and lively woman, capable of both leadership and battle if need be. You should have seen her, Aegon. She was as fierce as she was beautiful. Strong as she was refined. When she walked through court, wearing her fine, thin, veils and garments, adorned with the finest gold and jewels in the known world, it was her eyes and smile that sparkled brightest. It was truly a sight to see. Her two husbands were said to be the luckiest men alive, and young men joined her temple praying day and night that she would fall into the same lust for physical pleasures as some of her forebearers in the past." He smiled as if he was lost in his memory, savoring each lesson he was teaching his pupil. "She never performed in the temples, though. Never in the temples."</p><p>"To understand the reason for the Rebellion, you have to understand even further back. After a group of Yit fanatics once plotted and killed an Empress to elevate the Yit daughter over the then too young Leg daughter that was next in line, those involved were either executed or exiled for twenty years. I forget who it was, then. To be fair, Kiku's mother was my teacher, and she was a far worse one than her daughter turned out to be. Anyway, when the exiles returned, many eventually become heirs to their families lands and titles themselves, the leaders in Leng Ma and Leng Yi, mostly Yits, have hesitated or downright refused to trade and consort with Leg nobles of Turrani and Southern Leng."</p><p>"After years of suffering cut off from the easier trade routes with the rest of the world, and no open trade between Yit leaders of the Northern part of our island, Leg leaders started a lucrative arrangement with Ghiscari slavers, offering a way point in the slave trade routes, to store, sell, and transport their 'goods' to supplement the loss of income and wealth in the South."</p><p>"Leaders of the Lengii communities refused to openly buy or trade slaves, especially of their own people, but many low born and forgotten members of the society found themselves in chains while certain families were growing richer and richer."</p><p>"Isn't slavery illegal here?" Aegon asked. What little he did know of Leng, he thought he knew they were against the practice he hated so.</p><p>"As it should be in every place, but every place practices slavery in some form, legal or otherwise." Kaono responded. It was all too true. He continued, "Now, knowing that, you would then easily understand how those events would eventually lead to a group calling themselves the Jungle Jackals to poach travelers from the southern roads, loot their cargo, and enslave the people. They sold them to Ghiscari at the mouth of the Maonansum River, the river named for the first free Master of the Lands, Mao Nan Sum, Khiara the Great's true love and first husband, hero of our revolution with YiTi, and a former slave himself."</p><p>"The people of Turrani, noble and common alike, were outraged, and reached out to those in power in Leng Ma, and even in the capitol. No aid was ever given or even offered. It wasn't until Gia Noon, the lovely daughter of a Leng Ma nobleman was captured on the roads just south of the city did the magistrate of Leng Ma and the leaders in the capitol respond. Kheekara raised a host to root out the raiders in the jungles, until a rebellion in the city of Turrani broke out as the leader of the Jungle Jackals, Tontu Nan Bol, the second son of a Lengii dignitary, took over the leadership of Turrani, storming the city and overthrowing its magistrate, as if he was Sao Ku himself."</p><p>"Sao Ku?" Aegon asked, not knowing if he should know who or what Sao Ku was.</p><p>"You've never heard of Sao Ku?" Aegon shook his head. Kaono continued, "Well, two hundred or so years ago, Sao Ku did the same to Leng Yi, for much the same motives, though he was a Yit and Tontu a Leg. You see, Khiara the Great took her two husbands, Mao Nan Sum, a hero, and Jun Tong, a defeated YiTi General. Though renowned for his prowess in combat, Jun Tong lost to Mao. First, he lost the war, then he lost their fight for Khiara, as both were wed to the woman, but it was clear who she preferred to spend time with. Both during the day, and especially the evening, though she did manage to birth Jun a son, Sao Ku Tong. The Sao Ku I referred to."</p><p>"What did he do?"</p><p>"Raised by a bitter and twice defeated father who was of YiTi, not Leng, he grew to hate the Legs. Jun was disgraced and forced to learn the seas, as Mao was given control of the army and he the navy. Jun was also clearly the second husband, and that made Sao the second child in respect to his half sister Khiana, who would eventually be anointed and ascend.</p><p>When his mother passed, he wanted his half-sister, Khiana the Wise she grew to be called, to take him as her second husband, to maintain his and his family's status in the land. She refused, both saddened that he'd prioritize politics over their distant but familial relationship, and disgusted that he suggested they could or should wed. He retreated from the public for a while, disgraced by his half-sister, and shunned by the Leg members of the new government. He became part of a fanatic group that tried overthrowing Leng Yi, and spoke of a YiTish Leng, wanting to rejoin the empire and eradicate all the Legs."</p><p>"How is Tontu whatever whatever the same as Sao Ku Tong then?"</p><p>"Tontu took over Turrani with the same hate speak. He wanted to cure Leng of all YiTi descendants, evoking the Old Ones and their message to return Leng to the Legs. Rallying the native Lengii people, he fought against the host Kheekara brought to the jungles at the gates of Turrani, only present and willing to combat the raiders after the maiden Gia Noon was taken, and not the hundreds taken like her with longer legs and darker skin."</p><p>"The Empress, the beloved Kheekara, died fighting in the rebellion, and when it was seen that she had fallen, a Lengii, and maybe the last 'true' Lengii Empress, the remaining Turranians mutinied against Tontu and surrendered, even though the fight was going in their favor. They held Tontu responsible for, 'Poisoning their minds with the hate of the Old Ones.' He was charged with treason and his last words were, "The Old Ones are buried but will return."</p><p>"The Empress that passed was that Empress' daughter?" Aegon asked.</p><p>"Yes. Khissara was annointed and ascended soon after the rebellion had concluded, and instead of killing and exiling her people who were hurting, scared, and saddened by the horrors of the jackals and the lack of protection from the YiTi descendant leadership of Northern Leng, she embraced Turrani, though she was rumored herself to be not 'purely' leg, and even brought on additional council members and positions to fill them with Legs to ensure their voice and opinions were heard and honored in a way befitting anyone from Leng, Yit or Leg."</p><p>"You were the magistrate then, weren't you?" Aegon asked.</p><p>"Yes. Sadly, yes. I was a bitter young man at the time. I once lived in the capitol. I never wanted to be magistrate. This title was forced on me, and I did not take it seriously enough."</p><p>"Did you mean to ignore the pleas of Turrani before Gia Noon?"</p><p>"No. At the time, I was too busy distracting myself from my ugly wife in the company of beautiful young women. I wasn't even aware. My council handled all day to day governance of Leng Ma, that is until we lost Kheekara, and I vowed to serve my new Empress as our land deserved. And I vowed personally to try to bring Yit and Leg together."</p><p>Aegon nodded. Understanding more than he thought, and feeling his exhaustion beginning to take over.</p><p>"Third, let me begin to tell you about Dat Kumo, who the other river of Leng, the one you've rowed from Leng Ma, the Kumo gets its name," the magistrate began, though Aegon's eyes were beginning to feel heavy, staring into the starry sky, the grassy boggy plain around lit by the blue dim light of the moon, and his traveling partner and assignment droning on about Lengii history. He fought his lids as hard as he could, but they seemed the best opponent he'd fought in years, and continued to close. His head would nod over, then he'd catch it with his shoulders, jolting awake from half moments of sleep and exhaustion. He shook his head trying to stay awake, and yawned.</p><p>"Dat was Khiana's second husband, though he was always one of my favorites in all the history of Leng. In fact, many of the other heroes of Leng are named Dat in his honor." Aegon caught himself again, but this time it was almost too late, and he mumbled, "Whoa," to himself as he had to catch his body with his arms before it fell to the damp grassy floor beneath.</p><p>"Looks like I've got the first watch, huh Aegon?"</p><p>"Your Honor .. . " Aegon's eyes closed again.</p><p>"It's fine. I'm old, but all I'll do is wake you up. I have your pitcher of water. Now that you've had your fill of drink, you won't be needing it as much."</p><p>Aegon didn't even respond. He merely accepted his offering, and allowed his eyes to close and his head gently descend back against the rock he was sitting leaned up against. His eyes now shut, the world fully dark, he immediately slipped into a dream he wouldn't remember, though as he dreamt it, he wish he would, staring into the blue and purple eyes like a sunset in the faint orange glow of a camp fire.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Leng is a YiTi-ish colony, essentially, and is split into the two cultural groups: those of YiTi descent, and those of Native Lengii descent.</p><p>The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate and specify the tension between the two cultural groups and establish a past that speaks to the present and future about the island.</p><p>Let me know if you have any questions.  I originally offered to publish the very dry "History of Leng" as I constructed it to help better inform this work, but no one was interested enough (people are barely interested in this story) to take me up on it.</p><p>Thank you for reading and let me know what you think so far.</p><p>HS</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>6</p><p>In the middle of a dream he didn't remember, he was roused by the magistrate with a shake and an urgent plea, "Rise, dragon king. Rise!"</p><p>He stretched his eyes open as quickly as he could, still half between his dreams and the world, and pushed his body up to his feet, reaching his hand for the dirk. Still hazy, his right hand missed its target and slipped off the hilt of the dirk, gently grazing the sheath of his new black dragon blade as he failed to complete his intentions. Both less effort and potentially a better option, he pulled the longer blade in the dirk's stead.</p><p>Shaking his head, he collected himself, now vaguely aware of his surroundings, and replied to the magistrate's urgency with, "What? What is it?"</p><p>Kaono sat back, smirking, chuckled to himself, and proclaimed, "You've slept enough. It is my turn to rest." Aegon relaxed, returned his blade to its sheath, and allowed his shoulders and posture to sink down comfortably. Kaono continued, "When it is first light, wake me gently and we will go. Tend to the horses. There isn't much more than an hour or two, but as old as I am, I'd prefer a bit of rest before we continue."</p><p><em>I half expected to see a tiger </em>Aegon thought, rubbing his swollen eyes trying to maintain his alertness. Still standing, he turned to tend the horses. Black looked to be resting, his eyes closed but still standing, nearest to where he fell asleep and still visible in the full light of the moon.</p><p>Spending most his life at sea, Aegon didn't know horses intimately, but he did know they slept both standing and lying down. Black seemed the type of horse to only lie down in his stable. Though he couldn't confirm it, the horse appeared to be sleeping, so, Aegon figured to leave him alone and allow him to rest. The ornery beast probably wouldn't take kindly to a relative stranger brushing him or waking him to feed, so, he left him, and turned towards where he tethered Pal.</p><p>The moon illuminated much of the clearing so as soon as Aegon turned to see his mount, though shadowed by the edge of the trees, he could see the teke teke moving. Pacing in place, the dark figure seemed agitated by something. <em>Could it be a tiger after all? </em>In case it was, Aegon pulled his black blades and approached the horse quietly, alertly.</p><p>With no torch to light his way, Aegon began stepping deeper into the dark, as his skin became shadows, and his vision began to fail him. He clicked to his horse, as if to calm it, and the horse answered with a soft whinny. "That a boy, Pal. Easy. Let me get you off this tree quickly." He put his weapons away and reached out for the reigns. Wavering hands swatted through the air until he grasped the worn leather strap and followed it to the tree. He untied Pal, and began to lead him to the open wet grass and the dim shine off the blue moon.</p><p>After four or five steps, behind them, a branch snapped. The horse reared, and Aegon nearly shorted the length of his horse's tail drawing his weapon. Instinctively, he pulled the dirk, and stood ready, scanning where he'd heard the branch crack. He found the culprit to be a ring- tailed monkey with an orange pink face, eyes as green as the gems of the island, and two long sharp teeth that protruded out of its mouth like Ootrahk.</p><p>Aegon shooed it away, hooting as if mimicking their own noises would better communicate his intentions. The ape looked at him, titled its head, and called, stretching its mouth wide in rhythmic bursts and yelping in a throaty squeal. It slapped its furry thigh with a flat, thumbed hand, and continued cackling. <em>This fucker's laughing. </em>Aegon turned, chuckling himself, and continued walking closer to the camp, the trouble averted.</p><p>The dirk slid back into its sheath, and Aegon's hand slipped into his pocket to grab the native fruit that looked like an apple he'd brought to feed the horses. Since his horse was awake, he figured he'd offer him something before they began for the day. Black would be fine without it, but he thought it better to give the beast something now and again, later, just before they set off.</p><p>"Here you go, boy," he said, holding the apple just below the horse's mouth. Pal lifted his lips, and bit half the apple in one clean chomp. The speed in which he bit surprised Aegon, jolting him in his own skin. The horse chewed and Aegon composed himself. <em>I'm still but a boy around these beasts. I thought he took my hand off.</em></p><p>Hairy hands quickly yanked the remaining half apple away. <em>You little shit. </em>The monkey snuck around and snatched the apple, sending the horse to rearing again, seemingly jumping out from nowhere. "I have a mind to name you ReGar sneaking like that. Now shoo! Shoo!" The monkey retreated back, snickering as it did into the darkness.</p><p>A cloud cover crawled past the edge of the moon, and the gleaming beams began to fade slightly. He peered up to see a congregation of clouds covering the remaining sky like black smoke, slowly flowing toward their only hope for visibility. Aegon's eyes shifted, feeling something strange in his gut. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he looked around the darkening clearing to see the flecks of glowing green eyes sparsely spaced around the forest's edge. The horse murmured in agreement, as Aegon knew to be wary of just how many there were, and knowing not a thing of their intentions.</p><p>The one he'd seen before was no more than four feet, maybe eight stone in weight. On its own, it posed no threat, and Aegon dismissed it quickly as such. But with the amount that surrounded him, the stealth and quickness they possessed, and those teeth, seeing their jade almost glowing eyes in the cover of the trees, staring, the clouds above darkening the clearing with each second, he grew nervous. Fearful.</p><p>He began walking faster, looking behind him to locate the thief. He wasn't there, somehow slipping back into the abyss. Aegon click clicked to Pal, "C'mon, boy," and began stepping into a slow run, tugging the reigns with a gentle jerk to get the steed moving.</p><p>He heard Black neighing in the distance, the clouds now covering most of the moon. The black horse was invisible in the backdrop of shadowed forest and midnight, and the laughter of more monkeys rose from a whisper to a congregation in moments. A break in the cloud cover revealed three more monkeys surrounding Black, sounding towards the horse and each other. Aegon always imagined animals having their own tongues, their own way of speaking, and it seemed as if the monkeys were speaking to both the agitated horse, and their partners. What they were saying, he had not a clue, but the interaction seemed organized.</p><p>Aegon grabbed the dirk and tried to shoo the three away. They continued to laugh, and one stepped from out of the darkness and mimicked his shooing, calling and waving its furry arms in a similar way. The one that stepped out was larger, thicker. Its head was adorned with hair resembling a mane, and its shoulders and chest were broader, stronger.</p><p>After waving its arms, a good twelve feet from Aegon, it hit its chest once with a closed fist, then again, its eyes fixated on Aegon. <em>You don't scare me </em>he thought, as Aegon beat his own chest with his dirk hand.</p><p>The other two monkeys' green eyes widened, as they hooted and stood, ignoring Black and now intent on watching their brethren's interactions with him. The monkey in front hooted twice, then beat its chest again, squaring up to Aegon and beginning to circle him, as if an official challenge had been accepted.</p><p>The other two monkeys hooted twice, and more calls and hoots began to surround him as a score of four-foot, eight stone meat eaters came into view. <em>Shit, wat the fuck did I just do.</em></p><p>The lead monkey stood back on its hind legs, and grunted, as if to commence combat. Aegon was surprised to see the remaining monkeys all staying back, some even sitting back on their hind legs, as if to spectate. His eyes met the lead's and it began to bound towards him. The tilt was on.</p><p>Two heartbeats and the ape leapt toward him. Aegon readied a kick and swung his leg towards the airborne attacker, confident he'd land a hard blow. The dexterous ape landed onto his ankle instead of catching the force of his boot, and gripped itself onto him, leaning down and biting into Aegon's shin.</p><p>The sharp teeth sank into but not through the studded leather straps of his armor, crunching, but giving Aegon enough time to plant the leg and swing the dirk down. The blade caught its shoulder as it rolled off, slicing its skin to the shrill shriek and cackle as it yelped from the pain, and it clutched the wound as it hobbled back, its surprised face first cautious, then angry, as it lunged again at him.</p><p>He swung the dirk, to which the ape again contorted in the air, this time grasping onto Aegon's wrist. In stead of biting, the monkey then coiled and pounced into Aegon, pounding into the leather chest plate and snapping its deadly jaws towards Aegon's clean shaven face. He barely stretched his neck far enough back to avoid the sharp teeth of his attacker slashing through the meat of his throat.</p><p>The force of the acrobatics sent Aegon stumbling back, and he lost his footing as his horse neighed and kicked monkeys approaching it from behind. With his left hand, as he began to fall back, Aegon pushed into the monkey's neck just as its jaws began to snap again, and again, holding it away as the jolt from his impact with the ground sent the monkey bouncing far enough off of him to roll away, as it too impacted the wet ground and fell from its perch atop Aegon's dirk arm. The impact knocked his weapon away, and the monkey jumped back at him with its hands out, reaching to choke him.</p><p>Aegon grabbed the monkey by shoulders and neck, wrestling on the ground, rolling, fighting for position against its fast hands, gripping fur and hair, swaying back away from snapping jaws and sharp slashing teeth.</p><p>Aegon rolled, his advantage not his speed and dexterity, as it normally was with humans, but his size, weight, and strength, until he was on top of his attacker, with his thick strong legs squeezing the monkey's ribs, and his hands around the monkey's wrists. He pulled one of the arms across its body, pulling so hard one shoulder fell out of socket, and began to restrain and suffocate the monkey with the scissor its own limbs created, the inner elbow of the ape against its throat and its savage mouth no longer snapping as much as it was gasping for air.</p><p>His attacker subdued, though struggling, he heard the magistrate, now awake, yelling and shooing his own group away. Pal was kicking, the apes keeping at bay, but surrounding him, and Black was snapping at them with his own quick bite.</p><p>"What did you do? Challenge that one?" the magistrate called out, yelling over the cackles of the crowd and the gasps of the ape below him.</p><p>"It hit its chest," he started.</p><p>"So you hit <em>yours </em>back? <em>Mamohan hayan babo." </em>Kaono said, mumbling under his breath something Aegon hadn't yet learned.</p><p>"Should I not have?"</p><p>"At least you reduced it to one attacker," he said, then turned to address the encroaching apes around him. "In a time before, I'd be fine and make it to Black myself and gallop away from here unscathed. That was too long ago. Finish with that one, and help me to my horse."</p><p>"Yes, Your Honor." Aegon picked the monkey in his hands off the ground and pounded it into the wet grass and mud once, twice, three times. Before releasing it and punching it through its nose with one hard straight right. Bones crunched, but the monkey yelped, which encouraged Aegon. He didn't want to kill it, but he did want it to think better than to attack again. Thankfully still breathing, its body fell limp, as he rolled to the glint of the dirk to retrieve it, hopped to his feet and jumped through the two circling Pal, and onto his mount's saddle.</p><p>The horse reared, kicking the nearest monkey, as the troupe cackled and hooted around them. Pal, bounded into a gallop towards the magistrate, trampling one monkey and sending many more scattering from around Kaono. "Your Honor," Aegon said, offering his hand, as he pulled the small old man from his stance in the mud and threw him onto the golden horse. Pal left, without even as much as a noise from Aegon, fleeing as soon as the magistrate was balanced in the saddle. <em>Good boy.</em></p><p>Aegon grabbed the bag of their provisions from the ground, the clouds beginning to creep closer to the moon again and the brief window of visibility starting to close, and ran towards where Black was tethered surrounded by monkeys. Aegon reached into the bag and pulled out one of the apple like fruits, and threw it away from the horse as he ran. The monkeys responded, and quickly ran over to where it had landed and fought it, giving Aegon just enough time to reach the horse and leap onto its back and in the saddle.</p><p>Black launched his head back, cracking into Aegon's with a flash as his nose snapped and he felt warmth running from his nostrils, down his mouth, pooling, and dripping off his chin. He spit the welling blood from his lips, and somehow leaned in enough to stay on top of the horse as it bucked. "Whoa, you fucking bastard!" he yelled, not knowing if he was referring to himself of the horse, "Yah!" He kicked both flanks with his heels, and the muscled black horse launched into a mad gallop, throwing its head back every few moments to try and knock Aegon off.</p><p>The stallion burst through a group of the monkeys, and Aegon gripped the reigns, squeezing his legs as to hold as tight to the horse as he could. He wasn't a rider. Good enough to get from boat to market, market to boat, but he was never a trained horseman. The previous night and day was the longest he'd ever ridden, and Pal was such an easy and smooth horse to ride, now that he'd tested Black, he didn't know if he could hold on for much longer, as the darkness returned, the clouds covering their source of light, and the horse followed the hooves of the other, to the path and into the abyss neither the horse or Aegon could see through.</p><p>When branches began to creep closer, the sounds of the whooshing leaves whishing before they dragged across his face, he'd have to redirect Black back towards the center of the beaten path, as they raced away from the aggressive troupe, and back towards YiTi.</p><p>Aegon called to Kaono, "Do you know where we're going?"</p><p>"The same place we've been going this whole time?"</p><p>"Can we switch horses? This devil is going to throw me off."</p><p>"I agmanuen yong-want, dragon king."</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"Try to stop him, we'll switch." Kaono said with a snicker behind his words.</p><p>Not much more impeded their journey after the troupe. The sun rose soon after, and they traveled for another day and a half, resting once more in the evening in another secluded clearing, and arrived just outside of Leng Yi, approaching the Gate of Khiana the Wise. In their talks as they moved, Kaono admitted, "These used to be the places I met a woman I loved long ago. I was forced to relocate to Leng Ma and marry, but we still spent a few more moments together, under the stars, before she forced it all to end for good."</p><p>"When you were there, did you ever run into monkeys like that?"</p><p>"No, my friend, this was so very long ago. And the monkeys are not to blame. We were in their lands, and you were fool enough to accept his challenge."</p><p>They approached the towering gate from an incline, looking up at the painted limestone walls and the ornate brass and bronze gate. On each side were manned crenels, and before the gate stood a small formation straight across of similarly armored guards, their spears crossed forming a barrier if they were to pass.</p><p>Their helms were closed, the facemasks in the shape of an ape, similar, but not exactly like the ones they'd encountered in the forest. The lead guard stepped to them as they approached, and the magistrate announced in Malhada, "I am the Magistrate of Leng Ma, come to see the Elders."</p><p>"What magistrate comes without a retinue, a full guard, and his own herald to announce his arrival? Be gone, <em>babo, </em>don't take us gate guards for imbeciles," one said after standing out from the formation to address the two visitors.</p><p>"Careful your next move, young man," Kaono said, with the same victorious smile Aegon had seen him wear during the entire proceedings when they first met. "I am, Kaono Soon. You will address me as, Your Honor, befitting my station, title, and as your elder. I have been summoned by divine decree," he said, pulling the messenger's letter from the pocket inside his flowing robe and presenting it to the presumptuous guard. "And though you neither deserve based on the character you've displayed thus far nor rank important enough for an explanation from me; I left my train as to avoid further attack from whomever means the leaders of this country harm and chose to travel in obscurity to ensure my safety and prompt arrival; in-so doing, I could only take one, my best guard as protection; and he does not announce my heraldry, because as it so happens, my best guard speaks shit Malhada. Does this answer your questions well enough for you to quickly allow us entry to the city we were demanded to come to? Or should I request you find someone who does know who I am and how big of a mistake you are about to make?"</p><p>The guard stuttered and stumbled, falling all over his tongue, and his own feet, finally managing to say, awkwardly, "Yes, sure, ser, Your Honor. We will (Open the Gate! Now!) get you to the Elders in mere moments. We apologize, Your Honor. None of us have had the pleasure of meeting you in person. With our Empress dead, we can't be too cautious."</p><p>"That is fair," the magistrate reciprocated. "As long as you see my guard and myself safely and quickly through, no more needs be said of your conduct here. I thank you for serving the city with pride."</p><p>"You're welcome, Your Honor. You and your guard will be through in a moment."</p><p>The Bronze Gate swung in, revealing a beautiful city of curved sloped beams, paper windows, cobbled streets, and limestone walls separating property. Manse from manse. Temple from market. Rich from poor, as the further he looked in, the more gleaming and ornate the streets seemed decorated, all leading toward the silver domed building at the city's center, standing higher than even the tallest tower of the massive city wall.</p><p>"What building is that?" Aegon asked, almost innately though he almost knew for sure what it must be.</p><p>"That's the capitol of Leng, dragon king. Are both reptiles? For hopefully you are as successful with snakes as you are with dragons."</p><p>"I've never even seen a dragon."</p><p>"Then let's hope you're better with snakes. This city is full of them."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>7</p><p>The bathhouse reserved for the royals and nobility Kaono took him to was more opulent and decadent than he could have ever imagined. After three hard days of travel, he felt it would be disrespectful and downright negligent, smelling the way he did, to refuse the magistrate's invitation, but a small part of him still felt guilt in accepting, thinking of his lost love, and the fiery red frame that haunted the shape of every woman still living.</p><p>As Kiku had hinted at in their lessons with stray remarks more than any direct declarations, the magistrate was very easily distracted by women, especially young and beautiful ones, and as he had promised on their walk toward it, the bathhouse was brimming with them, all scatinly dressed, if at all, and most native Lengii. Long lithe legs, completely bare, shimmering with the steam in the air, paraded all around him and His Honor from the moment they entered. Kaono drank in every moment of pampering, greeting each woman with a sly hug, his short, wrinkled face resting neatly into their breasts, all a full head and a half taller than he, and surrendered with his arms out, allowing them to remove his silk robes with their playful hands and smiles. Though clearly aged, the old dog had a way with them, cooing quick bursts of flattery and coy to each of his three attendants, to a bouquet of smirks and blushes that seemed flirtatious and surprisingly well recieved. One girl's dark bronze skin blushed so red and smiled so wide, Aegon wondered what the man could have said. Even her eyes smiled, squinting and spreading in a way that seemed truthful. In a way that reminds me of her.</p><p>Aegon politely refused their advances, continuing the farce that he couldn't speak any Malhada. "Even here. Especially here, we must act as if enemies' eyes are watching," Kaono warned in Valyrian just before they entered.</p><p>"Do you want your enemies seeing you with young women?" Aegon asked.</p><p>"My wife is long dead, and my predilections are no secret. I know from first-hand experience the eyes and ears these sweating walls must have so be mindful of all that you do."</p><p>Aegon replied to the hostesses with, "No thank you," in Valyrian, to which they all shrugged, giggled, and proceeded to reach for the straps of his armor. He backed away, gently removing their smooth, creamy, teak colored arms and hands with chivalrous parries and both hands signaling stop. One girl persisted, her eyes almost hungry to see beneath his small clothes, to which he seized her gently, looked into her eyes, shook his head side to side, and backed away. Almost too busy with his own attendants, the magistrate finally heard the exchange behind him and explained for him in Malhada, "He may not need additional attention or help, my sweet flowers. Feel free to avert the attention you'd pay him to me. Nothing would dissuade me from enjoying such a sweet sensation as those smiles shining my way."</p><p>Two muttered something in another tongue, one he hadn't yet heard, and joined the magistrate's party immediately. The eager one left approached him again, reached for his belt buckle, holding it without a move to unfasten it and looked slightly down at him. She spoke in Malhada, saying, "Please, my lord, allow me the honor of attending you. Too often we are here for the old, or the heavy, or the frail, or the homely. Allow me the reward of you and your body, so that even just this once, I can truly enjoy my day's work."</p><p>Her teak skin was smooth and firm, as her thin amber eyes peered down on him hungrily framed, by wide tight lids supported by her high cheekbones. Her eyes weren't thin like the YiTi descendant Lengii, but were spread long and narrow like a cat's, almost half squinting. Her eye color popped against the darkness of her skin, and the otherwise mutely colored brown pupils were burning and bright, searching deep into his own purple eyes and seemingly through into his soul. She was stunningly gorgeous, as his eyes naturally scanned her, up and down. Her thin neck met her prominent collar bones, the skin exposed and glistening from the wetness of the bathhouse, small beads forming and running into her cleavage. Her taught, thin arms reached down and to his belt, but remained still, holding his buckle, as his body couldn't help but respond below, to which she noticed and peered down at. Her mint green robe was translucent, tracing her long erect onyx nipples with pored silk, more a net than a covering, and he quickly shot his eyes back up to her face, which was grinning.</p><p>She was exquisite. She was stunning. Every feature made his heart race. But his mind couldn't think of anything other than Nahknani, and as every other inch of his body succumbed to natural desires associated with the attention she was giving him, his mind balked, and his heart sank, and it was all he could do to keep his eyes from welling up in front of them all.</p><p>"You are beautiful," he said in Valyrian, "but my heart still hurts for another, and to be with you would only serve to hurt me further."</p><p>She turned and asked the magistrate to translate, which he did, mostly. "He's not interested in you at this time, sweetling. His heart still mourns for another." All six within hearing "Awwed," in unison, releasing their grip of the magistrate and huddled over into Aegon to console him. They whispered things in Malhada, like, "Oh, you poor man," and, "How sweet a lover you must be," fawning over him even more after clarifying he didn't want their attention. He politely allowed some of the consoling until one stray hand reached for his member, to which he retreated away and graciously smiled and said, "No thank you," in Malhada.</p><p>The magistrate remarked to him in Valyrian, "Shit, next time I'm using that line first," as the girls quickly lost interest and returned to the magistrate. One remarked as she turned, "Someone fetch him a boy," to which the rest of them, including Kaono, all laughed heartily.</p><p>The eager one turned back, her eyes less thirsty, and said in broken Valyrian, "Follow must this bath. This private for ones. Follow must."</p><p>He nodded, "Your beauty deserves true affection. I'm sorry my heart cannot bare the thought of another woman, for I'd dream to know a woman like you otherwise."</p><p>"Innocent, I am not. You being this teasing to me is punishment for mine. I am good not and your words now only hurt mine heart harder for my bad bad . . I sometimes be stealing. You never will tell this, will you?" her Valyrian wasn't structured correctly but she seemed to know most of the words.</p><p>"No. Where is this private bath?"</p><p>"Hoping I can stay?"</p><p>"Next time," Aegon replied, the more he flirted, the more his heart ached with guilt, as if he was breaking some kind of vow with each lustful thought he had of this other woman.</p><p>The eager woman smiled and ceased any further attempts, turning her head and proceeding quietly the rest of the way to the private bath. The bathhouse was expansive. Underground, it seemed to stretch beneath most of the city square above, chiseled into the ground like a cave, lined with limestone blocks to re-enforce the walls, and held up by great stone pillars, thirty or forty feet high, placed strategically throughout the bathhouse. Each pillar created natural separations between sections of the hot springs carved into the ground below them. Kaono was led to a room to the left, where the tall walls surrounded the springs on all sides and a thin corridor led to an entrance no one could see. Aegon thought to join him, but the magistrate outright refused it when Aegon declared he wouldn't fuck them alongside him. "I'm not going to have you stand there like some creep and just watch me. If I can't protect myself from the pleasures of this place, or those in charge here truly wish my death, then I deserve it," he said before they entered the establishment's front door.</p><p>So, as the magistrate disappeared behind a wall, he continued to follow the eager woman, her hips wagging as she walked, as if she was still trying to entice him. As silent as her mouth was, her body was just as loud, screaming at him. He resisted. He stayed strong, though he still felt as if his thoughts were a slight betrayal. They approached a closed off section which she ensured was private, and he nodded to his attendant, waiting until she left before disrobing and climbing into the steaming pool he had to himself.</p><p>He rubbed himself with the water, removing dirt and twigs left from sleeping in the forest. He rubbed in between his feet as the swampy wet ground of the jungle began to make them itch, and he splashed some water on the simmering stones in the private room to create more steam to clear his nose and throat, which seemed clogged from the raining pollen and swarming gnats that seemed to cloud around him on their trek. Last, he dunked his head, which would have been unreasonable if it weren't for his aversion to heat, as the water was scalding hot to the point where it felt cooling and refreshing, tingling his sore muscles and saddle soreness as if the heat healed him, which it did.</p><p>He rose out of the water and ran his hands through his thick hair, untangling it in the water and removing the dirt and tiny twigs that seemed matted into it. He was told his hair was of the north, dark and thick, wavy more than curly, and easy to become unmanageable. On the burning boat in Sothoryos, much of it had burnt away, but by now it had grown back in full, to his shoulders in some places, and if he wasn't unaffected by heat, he'd have died of it in the jungle. Kiku always tried to tie the top back, like the way she did for the council, but he refused, letting it hang down in a thick tumble and brush it back with his hands when it got in the way. He tugged and ripped at it until it was mostly clean and straight, and then he waded over to the edge of the pool for the dirk to shorten it a bit, cutting it up to his jaw line, for when it curled up, he'd be able to wear it out of his face and behind his ears parted in the middle, or tied back in one short tail.</p><p>After a quarter hour, he was clean and trimmed. He tossed the dirk back into the pile of his clothes and weapons, and sank into the steaming water for some rest. He sat on the carved underwater seat near the pool's edge and laid his head back against polished stone floor above the water, exhaling and closing his eyes. He focused on the tingling chill that almost shivered his skin as the abrasions from swatting branches, the irksome itch of bug bites, and the uncomfortable soreness of his nose all melted into a euphoric state of calm, the gray smoke rising off the black water and clouding the room until the air was thick around him. He splashed towards the simmering stones with his eyes closed, and smiled when he heard his wave sizzle, as he quickly returned to relaxing all his muscles and allowing his weight to almost float, half suspended in the steaming water.</p><p>For a moment, he felt himself dozing, almost slipping into a deep sleep, before realizing and splashing himself in the face. He popped his head up, and opened his eyes, blinking the splashed water out from his vision, and massaging his face awake. His eyes focused, and he was startled to see someone in the pool with him, a jade silk veil over the bottom of their face, as he jumped back in surprise.</p><p>"Not many can withstand the heat of the dragon pool," a woman's voice said in Valyrian, slightly muffled by her veil, though as smooth as still water, and as soft as warm butter.</p><p>The magistrate had ensured they would be alone with only the girls, as he paid extra to ensure no other patrons would be allowed inside the entire bathhouse until their hour was up, but this didn't look like the eyes of any of the girls he'd seen at the entrance. Above the silk veil were vibrant green eyes, the kind of eyes a man would never forget, almost glowing through the smoke and steam across the pool from him. She was sitting on another carved underwater bench across from him, her long smooth arms resting on the floor above, the color of chocolate, and her shoulders, collarbone, and neck were all bare and above the dark still water of the pool. When she spoke, the water rippled just below her collarbone, revealing some of her chest as it moved. "I'm sorry to have disturbed you. I was as surprised as you are now to see you here and not with His Honor. My apologies for sneaking up on you, I didn't mean to rouse you as you looked to be sleeping."</p><p>Aegon didn't hear a footstep, let alone feel the water move as she entered. He must have been asleep longer and harder than he had thought. "Is our time up?" he asked, assuming she was the authority in this place of business.</p><p>"That is not for me to say," she said, "I am granted private access to this specific pool at my leisure. I wasn't informed until my arrival that there was a private party, but Shiku said you'd be otherwise occupied by the girls and I could slip in and out for a quick dip, the heat is soothing, and I needed an escape."</p><p>Though she said things and did things that were all suspicious, it seemed as if she belonged there more than he. "How did you know I spoke Valyrian?" he asked, curious as to how she immediately began speaking it as soon as he popped up awake.</p><p>"Well, with the purple eyes and dark hair, you would most likely be Lyseni, but no Lyseni has ever been known to turn down the advances of girls in a bathhouse without specifically demanding boys in their place, so, you're not that. There's a small chance of Tyroshi, but a Tyroshi would never be caught dead in the garb as dull as a common guard's uniform. So, that only leaves those that still speak Valyrian." She smiled. Though her mouth was hidden behind the green veil, the squint and spread of her eyes gave it away. "And Shiku said Kaono and a man who spoke Valyrian were here, though as I said, I was surprised to see you alone, refusing the advances of the girls. Are they not lovely?" She sat up straighter, lowering her arms into the water and resting them down where her lap would be. Her tall body rose until her breasts were almost completely exposed, her nipples floating just below the crest of the dark water.</p><p>"They are lovely indeed, but as I explained to them, my heart hurts at the sight of other women after losing the one that I loved."</p><p>"I heard that as well, though it seems unbelievable." She said, shifting in her seat, and lifting one arm out of the water to rest her head on, as she seemed to be stretching her body underneath the water, lifting a toe just barely out of it not too far from where he sat, her legs incredibly long to do such a feat. She shifted again, repeating the motions of her poetically smooth physique on the opposite side, again, teasing the crust of the black water with the tip of her toe.</p><p>"Why would that be hard to believe?" Aegon asked, guilt bubbling inside him again as his thoughts fought with the animalistic urges that quickened his pulse.</p><p>"Did she wish for you to be miserable?" She asked, as she repositioned herself in the first relaxed pose, both arms out of the water and behind her resting head, her long black hair tied behind her in an elaborate braid. Her long dark eyelashes batting at him above the veil.</p><p>"I do not believe so, no."</p><p>"Did she know you to know if you enjoyed carnal pleasures of the body? You do enjoy a woman's body, a woman's touch, don't you?"</p><p>"She did know me, and I did enjoy her touch."</p><p>"If she loved you," she said, "Then she wouldn't wish you to remain miserable forever. Surely, she wasn't the only woman you have ever felt or ever loved before. Or no, she was the only woman you have known. Aw, you poor thing," she said, fawning like the others for a moment, "She took your flower, didn't she?"</p><p>Aegon didn't respond. He didn't care to. Part of him felt embarrassment, part of him felt guilt, but most of his body felt extremely aroused by the veiled woman before him, and he didn't want to fall for her mesmerizing gaze and do something he'd regret. One, he wasn't through loving or grieving his true love. And another, this mysterious visitor should not and could not be trusted. If he fell for her love trap, he could be in grave danger, or so he thought, as paranoid as it seemed. Why else would such a beautiful woman be playing with him in this way?</p><p>"That's okay, my love," she said, "I mean you no harm. I have yet to lose my own flower, so for that, you will not be judged. Though, when I do, I hope the man I lose it to feels half as strongly for me as you do for the one you've lost." She stood up gradually. The dark water slid down her smooth brown skin as if it enjoyed the touch of it, flowing slowly and only falling from her when colliding with other drips and beads. She paused, as Nahknani would, her bare form clearly visible, presented to Aegon as if an offering for his service, luscious, voluptuous, subtly bouncing from her movements, her dark nipples tiny tips to the full round swell of her chest, her stomach smooth and flat, and the rounded curvature of her hips half concealed by the black water that covered her below. "Are you sure there isn't anything I can offer you?"</p><p>She paced toward him, her long legs reaching him in three steps through the dark rippling water, and before he could respond, his eyes wide and jaw open, she sunk back into the water, pulled off her veil, and kissed him. The soft skin of her lips against his sparked a rush through his veins, reminding him of his kisses with Nahknani, and though he felt guilt, he felt pleasure, and an outpouring of rushing relief.</p><p>He closed his eyes and surrendered as she floated closer, pressing her chest against his, kissing deeper, and wrapping her arms around the back of his shoulders. He felt the rest of her body closing in, and her long legs spreading underneath the water and just in front of his lap, where he was fully ready if she had come any closer.</p><p>With a strong deliberate grasp, still locked in a passionately soft and sensual kiss, he forced her body to stop as he felt the inside of her thigh graze his member. Her soft skin aroused more than a fire in his veins, but his heart still shuttered enough to break from the kiss and say, "May the man who takes your innocence have thoughts for only you. Save me the dishonor of being the man who soiled you, Gorgeous. Please just kiss me as you were, and save your flower for you husband."</p><p>"With words like that, maybe you'll be the one I chose." At least it sounds like in this land, she has a choice. Who is this beautiful goddess? She shifted her body over, closing her legs, and leaning back in to kiss him. When he closed his eyes, half of the time she was Nahknani, but the other half he knew it was her, whoever she was. She didn't nip at him the way Nani did. He couldn't feel the slight rake of her savage teeth when they pressed their faces against each other. And though he felt guilt in his heart, he felt freed, as if emotions of his lost love mixed with the rush of this pretend new one, tingling in the extreme heat of the pool, and embraced in the inviting arms of this exotic beauty with the form of a hopeful bachelor's dream, so extremely and breathtakingly attractive, even Nahknani might be compelled to join in if she were here. If she were alive.</p><p>"I'm sorry," he said, pulling away from her. "I can't. It's too soon. I still see her eyes when I close mine."</p><p>"Am I not lovely? Am I not as lovely as she?" she said, her face dropping in disappointment and rejection.</p><p>"Lovelier, even. My last thought was how she might even allow you to join us."</p><p>"Then let me. She will forever be here, it seems," she said, touch his chest, aiming for his heart, then tracing his developed muscles with a soft, tingling caress. "Let me ease you of this pain, as I learn to please whoever I decide to marry." Her words didn't make sense yet.</p><p>She leaned back into him again, kissing him deeply. His hands swam through the water, grabbing her breast, and running up to her cheek, as he held her like he'd held her, and he didn't know if he was elated, or grieving. He only felt the softness of her lips, and firmness of her dark skin, and with his eyes closed, his heart hurt a little less, and his blood was spinning in his veins, again.</p><p>Abruptly, she stopped, back away inches from his mouth, and barked out without turning her head in Malhada, "Don't step in here, Akino, do NOT take another step. I am finished bathing and will be out in a moment. Eunich or not, I do not wish for your lustful eyes to see me disrobed!" She kissed him once more, holding it, until it seemed neither had any breath left, and back away, staring straight into his eyes saying, "I was never here," in Valyrian, just above a whisper. "Keep your magistrate in the dark and I will keep my eyes open for you. What is your name, Valyrian stranger?"</p><p>"My name is Aegon Velayron. What is your name, beautiful goddess?"</p><p>"I believe in my heart you will find out soon enough," she said, and with that she turned, sauntering out of the water with the top curve of her ass just below the surface. He followed her long steps until she reached the underwater seat. She stepped out of the steaming pool, turning to present her full naked form to him. She paused, as she did, for a moment, then flirtatiously bent over to grab her silk robe from the polished stone floor and slipped it over her. The silk clung to her perfectly shaped wet form as if the material was as aroused as he, hiding none of her sculptured form.</p><p>"Fare the well, Aegon Velaryon," she said, as she retrieved a long woolen looking cloth to dry off the remaining water from her smooth ebony skin. "Akino, avert your eyes, I'm coming out now." And with that, she touched the wall, and a door panel opened, and she was gone in the beat of his heart, which was still racing and thumping hard in his chest.</p><p>He laid back again, his member still angrily ready, and tried to think of anything else in the known world. But all his mind could do is race back and forth between the elation of the past few minutes, and the guilt that had wracked him for the past eighteen moons. Moments later, the first eager woman returned, informing him their time was finished. He thanked her, awaited for her to depart, and tried to fit into the new small clothes they had provided him without ripping them with his . . . still ready. . . . thoughts.</p><p>Eventually, he managed to dress himself, and met the magistrate at the entrance, whose face had seemed to loosen and was cemented with a childish grin frozen in place from cheek to cheek. "You have fun?" he asked. Before Aegon could respond, he blurted out in Valyrian, "Not as much fun as I had."</p><p>The next morning, Kaono would meet with the Elders and the Masters of the Land and Sea, to discuss all the necessary topics with the passing of the Goddess Among Men, Khissara, and the approaching elevation of her Lengii daughter, Khiana, who was at the time only twenty years old, and still relatively new to the politics and society of Leng. Aegon's presence was specifically requested as the attack on the magistrate's life seemed to be related to the assassination of their sovereign ruler, and the lone survivor of the attack was also the sworn protector of the magistrate, whose influence still seemed strong here.</p><p>Both Aegon and Kaono slept in the same apartment for foreign dignitaries, which was much like the one in Leng Ma, but bigger and more opulent. Kaono said it was meant to impress noble traders to spend more time and money in the capitol, and had a separate room within the apartment for servants to reside, close enough to their masters that they wouldn't have to spare any want or need while staying in the palace.</p><p>Aegon rose with the birds as a similar chaotic crow rang in his ears, sounding like the thrice damned black bird near the guards' barracks. He dressed himself, and made his way to the solar of the apartment, where a spread of fresh fruit and yellow wine was arranged for their consumption, and the rising sun gleamed off the distant bay beyond the city's wall, in clear view of the tall apartment's open window. A view that would impress a King he thought, even a Dragon King.</p><p>An hour or so later, eating bites of each fruit until he settled on a soft green one with small black seeds and fine brown hairs on its skin, he reminisced about the woman from the night before. Who is she? Was all he seemed to be able to ask himself, and although she seemed noble he knew nothing of the players in this new city and guessed it could be anyone from a courtier to the daughter of a nobleman. He hoped he wouldn't be meeting with the woman's father in the council, or hoped, at least, no one would ever find out. He would never tell a soul, that was certain. Even the magistrate who would have died to hear it, as he kept jesting Aegon their entire walk back to the palace with how much fun he'd missed by going to the back room. I missed nothing, old man. In fact, I may have seen too much.</p><p>When the magistrate woke, the same grin was still firmly placed on his face. "Damn, my young friend. You have no idea what fun you missed," he said, as if he could no longer form sentences different from those words in that order. He immediately made his way for the food and wine, noting that Aegon had tried each piece, saying, "At least you sample the actual fruit and taste each of their sweetness." He sighed, most likely reminiscing about the previous night himself, "And they tasted so so sweet indeed."</p><p>When they entered the Elder's Chambers, Kaono took a seat at the foot of the table and signaled Aegon to stand at attention next to him. "All here know Valyrian. Do not embarrass me. We are merely guests here. I cannot save you from harm if your mouth finds it."</p><p>Aegon obeyed and promised to stay silent until spoke to.</p><p>As the minutes passed and the seats were all filled with ornately robed dignitaries, the players seemed to come into play. Kaono failed to inform him of which was which, and what each member's purpose was, but from what he knew, he figured Shiku Ma, the same Shiku mentioned by the mystery woman the night before who Aegon later found out was the proprietor of the bathhouse, a council member, and also daughter of Kiku, was the only woman among them. She took her seat adorned in an oversized dress that trailed in a long train, with shoulder pads that stretched out and around behind her head, creating a crest of an eastern crane around her face, which was painted white with rouged cheeks and exaggerated eyeliner.</p><p>Choyko Nan Wen took one of the higher twin seats, away from the main table, reserved for the Masters of Land and Sea. Choyko was Khissara's first husband. Her native Lengii husband. He was traditionally as tall as all legs, but also full and stout, an enormously muscled and imposing man, seemingly as big as a giant must be beyond the wall. His smooth black head was shaved clean, and he wore opulent bracelets around his long arms and legs, which looked like they could almost fit around Aegon's waist he was so huge. He wore bright colors, and necklace, crested with shapes that made it look like a crown, though he wore none on his head. His sign of his position was the bright jade ring he wore on his left finger, signifying his marriage to the Goddess Among Men, and his union to the island's ground forces. A ceremonial ring worn since the days of Khiara the Great and Mao Nan Sum.</p><p>The rest of the figures he hadn't heard of and couldn't place. Among them were different nobles and wealthy men from around the island, some Yit, some Leg, but all vastly wealthy and seemingly powerful amongst this collection of players. The only chairs that remained empty were the seat of the Master of the Sea, Shinsou Chi, who was famously sluggish and tardy, and the Magistrate of Turrani who wouldn't arrive for another week or so, and thus, couldn't be waited for with as pressing of matters were to be discussed.</p><p>"Where's our fat friend?" One Yit noble asked, referring to the Master of the Sea, pointing to the empty seat.</p><p>Everyone but Aegon chuckled, and no one answered. A Leg noble turned towards Kaono and asked, "How did you get them to let your own personal guard in here?"</p><p>Kaono replied, "Easy enough. This fool doesn't speak a lick of Malhada, and is the only witness to my attack."</p><p>The rest of the group nodded, offering condolences towards the magistrate, as if they had just heard of his attack for the first time. Aegon knew they all must've known, but their over the top apologies and the late timing of them, sitting in the same room as him for now a quarter or half and hour, seemed suspicious. Aegon studied each of their faces as they offered their words, admitting they all appeared sincere, or could all be fantastic liars.</p><p>"Since he would say nothing anyway, let us begin without His Most Honorable Shinsou," Shiku said with a sarcastic grin and a hand gesture as if to allow the group to begin discussion. None spoke, and allowed for her to continue. "Sure then. As you all know," she said in Malhada, "the reasons for this meeting are of an obvious and extremely grave and saddening nature. Though all Goddesses die, Khissara was taken most unnaturally. Her guards were all killed and none were left alive. She was found in her royal apartments with no sign of the attackers other than the dead bodies they left behind."</p><p>"Of the guards that survived," one Yit in a green robe began to ask, "what have they said or been able to tell us?"</p><p>Shiku responded, "Though they are still being questioned, none of the surviving guards have any reason to be suspected. They were the ones who found the Empress and immediately informed all within the palace, as Choyko can confirm, for he was the first one they spoke with, her body still warm to the touch."</p><p>"So, no one saw anything?" the first Yit that spoke asked, with a concerned and urgent tone, "Then it must be the faceless men!"</p><p>Shiku raised her hand, responding with, "Now, we cannot conclude that. Faceless men often use poison. These assassin's used blades. Each guard, and the Empress herself, were all slain with cut throats. Faceless man it may be, but the evidence suggests something else. Someone else. Either way, faceless men are never employed by themselves. If it was them or not, still, some party, likely from within the city itself, was to blame."</p><p>"What else do we know?" A Leg, with a three toned jacket and doublet garb, resembling a more ornate version of a traditional Westerosi nobleman, shockingly bright in red orange and violet.</p><p>"It happened at the moon's highest peak, in the middle of the night, and not a servant or guest anywhere from around the palace saw anything other than the other servants and guests. All have been questioned,"</p><p>"How thoroughly?" another Leg asked, his garb more robe-like, in maroon and white, glaring at Shiku and interrupting her with an angry tone.</p><p>"Thoroughly," she retorted. "If it were you, you'd have confessed even if you were innocent. Trust me, no servant or guest could have defeated four of our best guards without making a sound."</p><p>The man slunk back into his seat. Shiku had all the bite and ferocity of her mother.</p><p>"Then it must be the other guards if it is not Faceless Men," the Yit in Green said, as the two other members of the council, one a Yit, the other a Leg remained pensively quiet in their seats around the Elder's table.</p><p>"The other guards were all similarly and even more thoroughly questioned. Four are relatively new recruits and lacked the skill. Two were too far into their cups to even answer questions moments after the murder, and the last was so loyal, while awaiting questioning, he fashioned a noose for himself and hung himself from the ceiling bars of his cell, seemingly out of guilt, for there was no blood anywhere on him, and based on the bodies, whoever killed her and her guards would have been covered with some kind of spray."</p><p>"Could he have changed?" the angry Leg asked.</p><p>"No. As I said, Choyko was immediately informed and the same guard hadn't left his post on the ground level of the royal staircase since he started his post earlier that night. One of the young recruits we were able to question confirms he never left his post, and was only alerted to the Empresses' death when Choyko himself came down the stairs to question him. Is it possible? Maybe, but the little shit that was his partner confessed to about every crime he had ever committed. If he were guilty, he would have said as much."</p><p>The banter continued as rich nobles harassed the true informant with obvious questions she easily answered as she too had already thought of them nights earlier as soon as she was informed of the slaughter. Choyko sat back in his chair, seemingly somber, allowing for the obnoxious noble banter to rush chaotically around him, as he stared into the nothingness in front of him. I know how he feels.</p><p>Aegon was still surprised to see the other prominent chair still empty, even much passed the beginning of the meeting. He thought to ask Kaono if he would ever arrive, though he figured it best to remain silent. He was only to speak when spoken to.</p><p>Finally, after exhausting all potential questions to ask their informer, Shiku turned to Aegon and asked in Valyrian, "Since you are the only one to witness an attacker, tell us what you know of the failed attempt against Kaono." She addressed him coldly, and with an urgent vigor that spoke to the growing frustration she felt speaking to such cluelessly uninformed lords and noblemen.</p><p>Aegon retold his tale, describing the man, his associates, their garb, and his strange features. Features that assuredly pinned him as a Leg, as well as his associates, to the furrowed brows of the Leg nobles in attendance, and the affirmed arrogance of the Yit nobles across the Elder's table from them.</p><p>"And he wore a glowing amber amulet around his neck, that seemed to match the glow in his eyes," Aegon concluded.</p><p>"It was dark in the room. Did it glow from the fire?" the angry Leg asked.</p><p>"No. It glowed darker orange than the flames. Almost brown. And the fire had been put out and it still seemed to glow."</p><p>"A necklace," the Yit in green scoffed. "You remember a necklace, but yet, you can't describe his face?" he said in Valyrian. Switching to Malhada, he continued, "This white devil is speaking of jewels in the face of death. His greedy constitution leaves his words tainted in my eyes. My ears say he is a Velaryon, like that wretched snake Corlys from long ago. I say it must be him. Since his arrival, we have lost our Empress and the man he was charged to guard was almost killed. Are we sure he is to be trusted?"</p><p>"Yes, idiot," Kaono spat back with vitriol. "I woke to see him saving my life. Only a fool such as you, Jokoon, would blame the man who saved me."</p><p>The nobles all burst out into another chaotic bout of back and forth shouting, debating nothing and everything all at once. Aegon sighed in unison with the magistrate as the nobles responsible for the islands well being all seemed to be either too selfish or too naïve to the task at even discussing what had happened save Shiku, the only woman, Choyko, the only grieving man, and Kaono, who was growing more and more irate at the unorganized display of their land's politics.</p><p>The rabble was interrupted by the chamber doors exploding open. Two guards, seven foot or taller, almost as thick as Choyko burst through, kicking the door open and pouring into the chambers with spears in their hands.</p><p>Choyko stood from his seat, and with a deep booming voice yelled in Malhada, "What is the meaning of this?! This is a private session of the council! Who dares burst in here like this?!"</p><p>A familiar voice, both smooth as still water and as soft as warm butter sounded from just outside the chambers, "'Tis I, father. The one soon to be Goddess Among Men. This is my land. This is my council. I have a right to be here, no?"</p><p>Dressed in a sheer robe which could have been spun gold, the teak beauty from the bathhouse stepped into the Elder's Chambers with her long lithe legs, adorned with golden bracelets peppered with sapphires. Her face, ears, and nose were all garnished with similar gold chains, pinned to her nostrils, eyelids, and down her ears as if she was being drizzled with molten jewelry, glitting and sparkling off the rays of sunlight that shone in from an open air window above. She wore a bright stone around her neck, which looked amber in color, that was clasped like a necklace he'd seen and just spoke of. Her dress robe was bedazzled with green and blue jewels, like the scales of an eastern dragon, covering her private areas, and leaving the exposed skin of her stomach, arms, and legs for all her subjects to admire. Her glowing green eyes simmered as they scanned the room, not even catching his glance as if she erased their meeting from memory. He tried to sneak a smirk at her, to which she caught, and paid no further mind to, as if he didn't even exist. She said to act as if it never happened. Maybe it didn't?</p><p>"Khiana," they all blurted in unison, immediately dropping to one knee in genuflection of the soon to be Goddess. Aegon hesitated, not knowing the custom. She looked upon him, her once soft inviting gaze now a glare, almost to the point of palpable anger, "Why does this white dolt not kneel?" she scolded, barking in a harsh tone.</p><p>"Forgive my mongrel, Your Holiness," Kaono remarked apologetically, "this foreign devil knows not of our customs. He would never be here if it wasn't for his information on my attacker."</p><p>"Well, the soon he leaves the better," she replied in Malhada, her words a burning brand into his heart. Has she no conscious? Or is she just overselling it to ensure there is no suspicion of our encounter?"</p><p>From behind her, another guard, this one a Yit, politely but urgently tried to sneak from behind her.</p><p>"What is it NOW?!" Choyko yelled to him, infuriated with all that was occurring all at once.</p><p>"Shinsou, Your Honors. It's Shinsou."</p><p>"And what of our fat friend?" the first Yit noble asked.</p><p>"He. . h-h-he . ." the guard stammered.</p><p>"Spit it out already!"</p><p>"Your honors," the guard said, composing himself, "Shinsou Chi is dead."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A relatively scandalous chapter.</p><p>Let me know what you think in the comments.</p><p>Thanks as always for reading.</p><p>HS</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>A/N Sorry for the delay. Hit a writer's block and had some shenanigans from the 4th of July I had to deal with. For those reading, thanks so much for the support and I hope you've enjoyed the ride so far. Please let me know what you're thinking of Leng and Aegon's new journey in the comments. I want to shout out to Bellisarius55, who in his own right is putting together an awesome story in "A Tale of Two Dragons" (definitely check it out) and for all those who've read Sothoryos and are on to Leng. The next chapter should be up shortly, and the story will start to get thicker and deeper. Please comment your thoughts. It helps to hear from you guys.</strong>
</p><p>8</p><p>"This is it?" Aegon questioned Kaono in Valyrian. "This is the private manse of a former king?"</p><p>"He was no King, stupid. He was the Master of the Jade Sea. And yes, this was his den of sin and iniquity."</p><p>Aegon looked upon the residence which was no more than a glorified hovel. The only distinguishing characteristic was the thirty foot high black iron gate that surrounded the structure on all four sides, densely spaced so that even a one of the small monkeys that roamed the streets here couldn't squeeze through, let alone a full grown man or woman. Each bar was tipped with a spear headed point, so without a neighboring building tall enough or close enough to descend from, one would have to scale one of the rods and risk impalement at the top.</p><p>Inside the gate were four guards who rotated posts throughout their shifts, who could easily see an intruder trying to scale the tall black bars. A fifth guard's entire shift was to man the front gate, which was as tall and just as inaccessible.</p><p>Aegon deduced that no one could have entered the manse without consent from one of the guards or some other unknown access point. The attacker could have been in league with one of the guards, which Shiku immediately began to determine, but that also seemed unlikely.</p><p>The guards working the previous night outside only became aware of the Master's death when it was time for the interior guards' shift change that morning. Even then, it was an hour or two into their morning shift before anyone had thought anything was amiss.</p><p>The Master was usually late to rise and had trained the guards assigned to him not to disturb him in his bed chambers. So, it was only when one of the palace guards arrived to remind him of how late he was to the meeting with the elders that any among them even entered his chambers to see the gruesome scene.</p><p>Those from the previous night had already been detained by Shiku's men and were being questioned, though none were seriously suspected. Like the guards assigned to the Empress on the night of her assassination, none were covered with even a speck of blood and were still wearing their original and only official uniforms. Shiku explained, "None of these men are given more than one uniform to wear. An official guard's uniform must be commissioned by a palace official, and though possible, for any of these men to be the culprit, cooperation from higher up would be necessary. If someone in position to wanted Shinsou killed or removed from his office, a whore would be much more easily used."</p><p>The grim news immediately ended the interrupted session of the elders and most in the room joined the guards and Shiku's men in the investigation. Of those who accompanied Shiku were Kaono, Aegon, and three of the other nobles present at the meeting. Only Choyko, the colorfully dressed Leg, and the two silent nobles remained in the palace, as Khiana herself required their council on a separate matter. Aegon nervously hoped it didn't have anything to do with their encounter in the bathhouse the night before.</p><p>Once inside the manse, Aegon inspected the scene as best he could with as little experience he had in such an undertaking. The meager first floor was only a few small rooms sparsely decorated with little more than a few tables and chairs feigning the appearance of a modest occupant.</p><p>"Where are the Master's chambers?" the Yit noble in green asked.</p><p>"Follow me," Shiku said, as she slipped into a closet and vanished from sight. Aegon followed first to see her descending stairs behind an open false door.</p><p>The hidden door and stairs led to a subterranean pleasure den which was huge in comparison to the first floor. The tall sanded limestone walls extended up at least fifteen feet, and though the space was poorly lit, it seemed to expand much further than the structure above. As they passed in the light of Shiku's oil lamp, Aegon could see large rooms all ornately decorated with Myrish rugs, upholstered chairs and carved wood furniture. There were tapestries covering the walls and sculptures of naked women provocatively gesturing. Tables were covered in scattered half eaten fruit and deserts, cakes and pastries, though what would once had looked inviting, had turned sour. Flies started to swarm around the tables of half eaten food, and a strong odor began to mix with the images of wealth and luxury.</p><p>Shiku stopped to admire the marble sculpture of a naked young girl. She looked at it with a grin of disgust and understanding. "The Master was nothing if not perverted. Most of these statues were sculpted using real girls as references. Some of them look to be far too young, but that is not why we are here. Follow me to the chambers," she said, addressing the uneasiness it felt like all in attendance should feel surrounded by such accoutrements. She continued to trudge through the menagerie of decadence and filth and the dim lamp cast shadows on the faces of young exposed girls. Aegon tried not to look, almost angered knowing what must have gone on down here.</p><p>He turned to Kaono and lowered his voice, "Ask if there are more tunnels and rooms like this around the city," he said in Valyrian.</p><p>"There are much more, ser. Why do you ask?" Shiku responded in Valyrian, hearing his words echoing in the cavernous halls despite his lowered voice.</p><p>"Do not indulge his white stupidity," Kaono said in Malhada with evidence of a wry smile in the shadows. He turned to his guard and scolded in Valyrian, "Know yourself. You are my guard, not my informant. You are here for your sword, not your mind."</p><p>Aegon ignored the magistrate and continued with Shiku, "If there are tunnels that lead to this den, they are the only way the killer or killers could have used to get in, unless his guards are among the conspirators."</p><p>"That is certainly true. My men are in the tunnels as we speak determining the likely entrance used. The tunnels are known only to the royal family and a select few who have been smuggled through them. We will ascertain the culprits soon." <em>Not if they're the same men that attacked the magistrate. They were in and out like ghosts without as much of a drop of blood to follow.</em></p><p>The group walked further to the edge of the main space and to a hall that evidently led to the multiple private rooms down here. Even the thinned dark corridor was dressed with lewd paintings on both sides. Following Shiku's lamp, the six of them continued in single file towards the open door that led to Shinsou's chambers, and the strong odor became more potent.</p><p>Kaono and Aegon followed closely behind Shiku as the remaining members of the Elders lagged behind more than a few steps. They seemed to be murmuring to each other though too softly for Aegon to hear or comprehend. They were either discussing the inappropriate sexual décor or were secretly conspiring some new and most likely unrelated plot. In Aegon's mind, high ranking nobles seemed the sort to always be involved in one scheme or another, though based on his little experience and bias. He just wondered if any were involved in this. "Have you seen the room yet?" he asked her.</p><p>"Only one of my guards has. He refused to speak of it."</p><p>They reached his room and Shiku stood at the door with the lamp and allowed the rest of the party to enter before she did, illuminating both the hall and the first few steps of the room before she turned the corner. The rest of the room was as dark as if it was still night.</p><p>"Lord Ha," she said, addressing the Yit noble in green after they all filed in, most holding their noses from the stench. "Would you be so kind as to light the lamp of that table there?" she asked, passing the lamp to him.</p><p>Reaching his free hand out, Lord Ha mumbled beneath his hand, "This would be far easier with a torch or candle."</p><p>"Yes, but for as much as you smoke your pipes and powders, certainly you have one of those sticks you use."</p><p>"Indeed I do, but they aren't to be wasted."</p><p>"If you please, my lord," she said, her tone deliberate and cold.</p><p>"Just light the fucking lamp you bloated wind bag," the Leg in the Westerosi double scolded harshly. Lord Ha pulled a stick from the sleeve of his robe and obeyed. When the lamp fully caught and illuminated the room, the entire group seemed to gasp in unison.</p><p>In total, Aegon counted six bodies. Five which appeared to have once been young women circled the obese Master, though what was left of all resembled butchered meat more than human remains. Though blood splatter covered the entire chambers, each remnant of the women were connected in a thick circle of their blood, deliberately drawn out with what looked like finger swipes, the smooth tile floor streaked between them in dark crimson trails. The blood had congealed somewhat, and appeared to almost have solidified and crusted to the floor. To complete the circle, one of the corpses was sheared in half and laid purposely overlapping itself at the top of the formation, even her face, which was more crushed bits of bone, brain, and what was left of the ragged skin torn from her skull. The master's own large round vessel had been left more intact, the expression of shocked horror still discernable on his pale face, his eyes wide and soulless. His stomach had been ripped open leaving a jagged and rough wound and his entrails were pulled out and arranged below his feet, which were placed in what looked like a message.</p><p>The curling entrails had been stamped down, crushed to the floor to more clearly make out the foreboding array of symbols, with small perfectly circular pools accenting the message in certain spots, once again, clearly deliberately done. The thick damp air of the underground dwelling had been manageable until the stench of death exacerbated its weight, and the foul odor of decay and desolate despair felt as shocking as the visceral visuals before them. Lord Ha wretched incessantly as soon as the lamp was lit, and the remaining members of the party, save Shiku, were all frozen by what their eyes were seeing. Kaono, who repeatedly reminded Aegon of how useless Shinsou had been as a man in such a place of authority, looked to be near the point of weeping. The Westerosi dressed Leg who had to crouch through the small doorway, sank to his knees, grasping his mouth to hold back his vocal response, turned a shade lighter than his usual teak to a color resembling the bleak grey the scene evoked. The remaining Yit noble mumbled something, shrieked and without explanation bolted from the chambers and could be heard stumbling through the dark hall that led them there, back out of the subterranean apartments.</p><p>Even Aegon, who had seen his fair share of gore and gruesome dismemberments, could barely hold his gaze to the evidence they were there to inspect. His eyes traced the circle of women, looking to discern or evaluate any information from who or what they were before the slaughter, but so much of their skin, clothing, and overall structure had been stripped down, he couldn't see past the pink, crimson, and black that amalgamated their new forms of crudely placed tissue and bone.</p><p>Evil has many forms. Some forms more influentially amoral than overtly malicious. Some forms more cruel, some more sinister. What laid before them here was the purest form he or anyone could ever see.</p><p>Moments passed like eons, as each in attendance remained silently shocked at the scene. Those that were brave enough to stay in the room, still seemed shrouded in paralyzing fear. Afraid to look away. Afraid to look more closely. Afraid. Aegon was the first to avert his gaze from the circle and quickly glanced at the rest of the room and the shaken members of the investigation party. <em>They all see themselves in the middle of that circle. They are all targets now.</em></p><p>He breathed deeply and closed his eyes. He said a prayer to the Old Gods, but knew, as in Sothoryos, that down here, their reach couldn't be further away. If they truly had any influence here, they had forsaken the women and man, or what was left, and Aegon couldn't help but think there could be no gods to allow a thing such as this.</p><p>Grimacing, his eyes still shut tightly, he spoke to Shiku, catching himself just before Malhada escaped his lips, to ask in Valyrian, "The message below him. What does it mean? It doesn't resemble Malhada. What language is this?"</p><p>The Westerosi dressed Leg responded quickly, but with a tone and volume that escaped his mouth more than being spoken from it, "That is the Old tongue, written right to left. It reads, 'The Old Ones."</p><p>"I knew it," Lord Ha whimpered in Malhada. "They are returned again. We need no investigation, this was done by creatures, not men. We are doomed. We ALL are doomed to suffer the same. What protection can we hope to have from nameless formless monsters that can slip into the realm of men and butcher like this? Except you, Lord Ko, in your doublet and finery. A native Leg has nothing to fear from the Old Ones."</p><p>"Any who do not fear this, Yit or Leg, are beyond a foolishness that can be acceptable. You say I have no fear, yet our own Empress, a Leg, is dead as well," he responded, his voice quivering as much his Yit counterpart.</p><p>"She was not killed like this! This could be in response to her murder," Lord Ha whined back near the point of cracking.</p><p>Kaono still stood motionless, seemingly thoughtless, staring past the brutality and into some far off place. Shiku walked toward another lamp and lit it, bringing more of the chambers into view, but none could look anywhere but in the vicinity of the bodies.</p><p>"I will more graciously leave this place than Lord Shing, but I must still leave. The Old Ones are still underground as they have been for hundreds of years. No one is safe down here, and I pray to our fallen Empress that no Yit will be tasked with returning down here."</p><p>"Burn them. Burn this entire structure down. No one needs be down here ever again. Evil like this stays in a place. Anyone who returns could be cursed, or worse," Lord Ko said, his voice still barely above a whisper.</p><p>"You would know wouldn't you, you stretched out monkey of a man? The Old Ones are Yours and Your peoples'. For all we know you summoned them," Lord Ha accused.</p><p>"For what purpose, you tiny round dumpling? For what gain? The Master was already on his way out of power, and among those in this royal court, he was among the most pro-Leg nobles in Leng Yi. He promoted more Leg captains to our fleet than any Master of the Jade Sea before. He fucked more Leg whores than Yit. I cannot say for certain, but one or more of these girls could be Leg. Why would the Old Ones target a staunch supporter of native Lengii?"</p><p>"You know what the Old Ones decreed. Death to all outsiders," replied Lord Ha.</p><p>"Then why her holiness? Why attempt to kill his honor Lord Soon? Each were pro-Leg. Why these three? Why not you?"</p><p>"Is that a threat you self-made drug peddler?"</p><p>"Gentlemen," Shiku interrupted, as Kaono remained stuck, and Aegon had to feign ignorance to their tongue, "and I use that term loosely. None in attendance are to be suspected as none of us either had the knowledge or the means to do such a thing as this. Before we allow the madness of this atrocity to devolve us into a civil war, let us try to find the truth of this killing and her holiness' before the common folk create a tale so inflammatory and hateful we cannot convince them otherwise."</p><p>"His mouth," Aegon said in Valyrian. "What is in his mouth?" He stepped towards the bodies and carefully tip toed over the blood and meat, crouching next to the man's open body, holding his mouth and face from the stench. The fat man's mouth was slightly agape.</p><p>He reached down to open his jaw wider, pulling his chin down toward his chest. Behind his tongue and lodged in his throat was a thin sheet of silver stamped with markings. He pulled it out, the metal plate long enough to have been down his throat. "What is this?" Aegon asked in Valyrian.</p><p>"It is a Lengii Soul Shard. The natives once said that these enchanted flints of silver would block a person's soul from returning to the Empresses Above. Only those marked by the Old Ones were ever buried with these inside. The practice has been dead for centuries," replied Shiku.</p><p>Aegon looked up at the four remaining faces, all still as stunned as when the light first revealed the scene and said. "Unfortunately for Shinsou, that practice was alive last night."</p><p>After a seemingly useless search, no more tangible evidence was found other than the horrific circle of death that was left arrayed in such a way to deliver its foreboding message. No weapon was evident with the multiple types of wounds and savage cuts in the corpses, many looking as if they might as well have been done with bare hands, or claws. No trails of prints or a struggle led to or from the room. The time of death was even uncertain, as the decaying bodies were all cold, but the heat in the room meant the brazier could have just recently burnt out. The additional heat from the burning brazier would have rushed the decay, or it may never had been lit and they were all killed as soon as the last guard was dismissed early in the previous evening.</p><p>They left the room and the manse with the same pallid expression plastered to their faces, and it looked as if all in attendance were still shaken by the sight. "Her eminence, the princess Khiana, wished for us to return and discuss our findings," Shiku said finally, breaking a silence that had lasted for their entire walk up and out.</p><p>"What are we to say?" Lord Ko asked, his voice desperately searching. "What more do we know?"</p><p>"We know what was done and what message has been sent," she said, cool and cold.</p><p>"Do we? Do we know what was done? Do we know why or who has done it? It says the Old Ones, but never in the history of Leng have the Old Ones done anything than influence others to act. And none of the tales, fact or fiction, ever describe as haneous an act as this. The Old Ones spoke of cleansing the land, not punishing or inflicting suffering on the invaders. They mostly spoke of purging with fire, not with ripped open guts and torn apart limps. That one woman was cleaved fully in half!"</p><p>"We must tell her what we do know. The Master was killed. He was killed with five whores. The message left translated to "The Old Ones." Not much more needs be said," Shiku responded, her voice shaking and her stoic veneer beginning to fracture.</p><p>"Shouldn't she know of the threat she faces?" Lord Ko asked.</p><p>"None should know. This is not for human minds to comprehend or apply meaning to. This is an abomination. We <em>should </em>burn it. Burn it all down," Kaono said, still staring into the distance, speaking for the first time since seeing the carnage.</p><p>"If it can be done safely, I will see to it, your Honor, but my men are still checking the surrounding tunnels to see what's connected," Shiku said.</p><p>
  <em>I bet these tunnels connect to the palace and the bathhouse.</em>
</p><p>"As I said, Khiana is waiting for us at the palace, except you, your Honor. You and your guard can see yourselves to your chambers. If you wish, I can have some of my girls draw you a bath to wash yourselves of this."</p><p>"My mind couldn't be further from your girls, Shiku. Save them the energy and send her eminence my condolences."</p><p>A quiet and disconcerting calm silenced the once bustling city for the next few days. Shops closed. Commoners shut themselves indoors. And there was no word to the magistrate from anyone inside the royal circle. Even Shiku had sent nothing as far as news or information, who according to Kaono was like a niece to him, as the city and the palace mourned their fallen deity and her second husband.</p><p>Their days were spent idly worrying inside the visitor's apartments, and Aegon was on high alert. If the killings here were connected to the magistrate's assassination attempt, those responsible couldn't be far, and whatever their original intent, nothing had changed other than his location. He guarded him closely by day and closer by night. By the time the retinue they abandoned arrived at the city gates, Aegon was so sleep deprived, he almost relished the idea of a nap, until he remembered the last time the magistrate's men were trusted to protect him from this danger, and the "finest" guards in the city were strewn aside like little more than green unblooded squires.</p><p>The first of the traveling party to call upon the magistrate after their arrival was none other than Shiku's mother. Kiku rapped on the door with her tiny powerful hands and greeted Aegon with a sultry smile.</p><p>"How'd the road treat you, you old bat?" He asked, smiling to see her familiar lined face.</p><p>"The road treated me well enough. It was the company that gave me more trouble," she replied in Valyrian, keeping up the farce. "You should have seen the look on ReGar's scheming face when he realized what you had done. It would have been worth staying. If I could've commissioned an artist to capture it, I would have hung the sight in my apartments."</p><p>She entered, though Aegon insisted on frisking her loose cloak for weaponry. He joked that it was required by his Honor and the elderly woman was all the happier with his strong hands feeling against her wrinkled form, but Aegon felt it necessary. He didn't know who to trust, and couldn't trust anyone. Free of any weapons, he allowed her entry.</p><p>"I heard of Shinsou," she said, her face falling grim.</p><p>"How?" Aegon asked, seriously wondering.</p><p>"All that occurs in this land is within hearing of my ears. Even his Honor's trip to the bathhouse."</p><p>
  <em>I doubt she knows of my time there.</em>
</p><p>The magistrate greeted her with a warm embrace. The two clearly had some sort of history, a bond years in the forging. He invited her in to his chambers to discuss things privately. Aegon insisted he join the magistrate for protection. "The only thing this old hag can do to me has already been done years ago. Leave me this peace, my friend. If she kills me, I deserved it."</p><p>The two retreated into his room and spoke as softly as if the walls had ears of their own. Aegon tried to listen, but their hushed voices were too soft and too low to make out anything being said. After about ten minutes, he thought he could hear the magistrate begin to weep.</p><p>Another fist knocked on the door, summoning Aegon to answer it. He opened it to see the gray faced Sheehin sticking his long nose inside. "Don't take another step," Aegon commanded. "What business do you have here?"</p><p>"I've come to request an audience with his Honor, my Lord." He said in his sniveling Valyrian.</p><p>"My title is your Honor as well, Sheep shin. And the magistrate is currently unavailable. Is there a message I can give him regarding your request?"</p><p>"Excuse me, your Honor, and no message, I just request an audience with him as soon as he can spare a moment."</p><p>"I will let him know you stopped by. I hope your journey was without much inconvenience."</p><p>"There has been nothing convenient about the last few weeks, with the attempted assassination and the successful ones. What is it now? Two dead royals? Nothing convenient indeed."</p><p>ReGar turned and slowly slinked away, his flowing robe dragging on the polished floor. Nothing he had done or said directly gave Aegon any cause to distrust the man so, but there was something about the man that unsettled him. <em>I have my eye on you </em>he thought, then he realized, he was as suspicious of him as he was of <em>everyone.</em></p><p>No one could be trusted, not now. Not after what he'd seen.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The Old Ones, a Martin reference to Lovecraft, in AWOIAF are vaguely described, if at all, and have only been barely mentioned in the canon work A World of Ice and Fire, however, they will have a huge role in this work.</p><p>Just note: the title of the work is Leng: Ancient Ones, for a reason.  </p><p>As with Sothoryos: Drahkness Kahn (if you read it) not everything is what it seems to be.</p><p>Let me know what you think in the comments.</p><p>Thanks, again, and again and at the end of next chapter as well.</p><p>HS</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>9</p><p>Though the city still mourned, shrouded with a dark, solemn stillness, heartbroken by the death of their empress and terrified by the visceral murder of the master, the land of Leng was still leaderless. A celebration of the young princess' ascension was the last thing any citizen of Leng Yi deemed appropriate, but as saddened and frightened as they were, from the highest of nobility to the lowest of the common folk, a ruler needed to be crowned. A young woman needed to ascend to become the deity the people needed. A bright light the people deserved.</p><p>On the morning of her ascension, members of the Elders met and discussed the new group that would advise the young empress, as the Lengii custom dictated. In the past, some Elders served more than one empress, seeing their terms renewed, but the precedent set and suggested by the second Lengii Empress, the daughter of Khiara the Great, Khiana the Wise; spoke to a system that kept nobles from becoming too influential or disloyal, as they should only serve one empress and then renounce their positions. And though head of the silent sixty seven stayed on longer, and a few exceptional Elders returned, the current Elders still gathered before the ascension to put new members in place to aid the young empress in these most dire of times.</p><p>Kaono Soon was not invited to these discussions, which the magistrate would have easily accepted without quarrel or misgivings if that had been it. But, since his son Kohono Soon was invited, and there was some lingering disdain between father and son, the magistrate was in his chambers the entire morning loudly bantering with Kiku in Malhada. Muffled by the door and spoken so quickly, Aegon could barely understand most of what was said. But with nothing else to do while manning the door, he heard enough to know the magistrate's opinion of his son was assuredly negative.</p><p>Aegon broke his fast with some boar's hide bacon that was left over from the previous evening, and a few fruits that still looked fresh enough and sat by Kaono's chamber doors waiting further instruction. Since the remainder of the retinue arrived, traffic in and out of the magistrate's quarters had been busy, with all manner of offended lords and privileged guards complaining about everything from the magistrate's secret departure from their progress to their assigned accommodations in the capitol. With all that had happened, the palace was very strictly guarded, and even the most noble of minor lords were assigned chambers more reminiscent of soldiers' barracks than dignitaries' apartments, and none were the least bit pleased. After unceremoniously deserting them all on the road, the magistrate knew he'd have to placate to their whining as politely as possible, and allowed every and all of those that called upon him to speak their peace graciously and promised he would do all he could to alleviate their discomfort. When Aegon asked why he felt the need to hear these self-important complaints, the magistrate responded, "After all this is settled and past us, I still need to coexist with these people, however unpleasant they are. I will promise them all that I will do what I can, but since I can do nothing, the least I can do is hear their frustration. Thus is the duty of those that serve."</p><p>While Kaono and Shiku continued bashing Kohono Soon in his chambers, another knock came at the door. Aegon rose from his position outside the magistrate's chambers and walked briskly to the entrance of the apartments.</p><p>The door opened to the back of ReGar, who was standing in the hall ordering his guards to remain vigilantly on watch as he was about to enter. "Sheep shin." Aegon greeted the pseudo-nobleman. "What brings you to us this morning?"</p><p>"Oh, Your Honor, good to see you," he said in Valyrian. "I came to discuss some information I've received about the meetings this morning and the comings and goings of our party from Leng Ma. His Honor and Shiku will be expecting me." He stood with an air of refined confidence as he finished speaking to Aegon and turned slightly away as if to await Aegon to bid him to enter.</p><p>"I was told of no expected visitors this morning. Let me see if the magistrate is able to receive you. If you could please wait in the hall?"</p><p>"As you wish, Your Honor."</p><p>Aegon closed and locked the door behind him, and continued to the magistrate's chamber to alert him of the visitor. He knocked and waited for the tense conversation within the room to subside.</p><p>"What!" Kaono yelled impetuously.</p><p>"ReGar is here to see you. He says there's news of the meetings and the comings and goings of our travel party."</p><p>"Bring him in. I will be out in but a moment."</p><p>Surprised the magistrate was willing to see him, Aegon returned to the entrance and allowed ReGar in. The thin lips beneath his long greyish nose stretched in a wry smile and opened to say, "You know, Your Honor, I am not the one you need to be so uncertain of. I am only here to serve the land of Leng, and myself. I seek to do no more harm than is necessary to ensure the success of both."</p><p>"Don't take my obvious distrust of you for either an insult or compliment. I distrust all equally in these difficult times."</p><p>"Rightfully so," he said, stepping slowly behind Aegon as he led him to the magistrate's room. The man looked around, his wide squinting eyes investigating the room and surroundings. "Seems they still have love for the old man here after all these years with a place like this when the city is full to bursting with all manner of important and powerful people. It must be nice to have ties to the royal family, no matter how salacious they may be."</p><p>Aegon ignored the passing remark, but heard it none the less. <em>Salacious ties? </em>Kaono and Shiku were out of the room waiting for ReGar in the solar, seated on an upholstered bench with pillows strewn about the floor for others to sit.</p><p>"ReGar," the magistrate said, spreading his arms, standing, and smiling at his guest. "It is good to see you again. With all that is going on, I feel like it has been too long since we battled in polite and measured debate. Thank you for coming so quickly."</p><p>"It is my honor, Your Honor. I am here to serve. Will your guard be excusing us?"</p><p>"No," Kaono replied bluntly, keeping the welcoming grin on his face. "He can't even speak Malhada. And in the presence of a Sheehin like yourself, if you proved to be a betrayer, I could not hope to last even a mere moment without the Head of the Dragon Guard by my side. If you will excuse his presence, I must insist he stay." <em>This gaunt weasel is dangerous in the magistrate's eyes?</em></p><p>"You are the magistrate and I am but a humble servant, your Honor, whatever you wish I will acquiesce. Though, I must say, Kiku, you are too good a teacher to have a pupil so inept at our tongue after so many lessons. Are you sure he's not just playing the fool?" his smile spread wider.</p><p>"No, ReGar. He's just a fool is all," Kiku remarked, smiling back playfully. ReGar knew he spoke enough Malhada to understand most things, it seemed, but even so, none among them could confirm it to him and trust that he'd keep the information to himself. They just had to continue to fool the rest of them.</p><p>"Sit, sit. Enough of this foreplay. Tell me. What of the meeting? What of the Elders?" Kaono asked, pointing towards the pillows arranged on the ground for his guest as he sat back down onto the cushioned bench with Kiku.</p><p>"There are a few notable mentions, your Honor. First, as you deduced, your son is now a Senior Member of the Elders and will represent the coin for her holiness until her death or his. It is a great honor to have risen to as only your heir and a middling trader at best. I congratulate you and your kin for such a lofty and unexpected promotion."</p><p>"Yes, thank you. But, I wonder: Why not appoint Kasco Nan Coo or another Leg noble? The Elder of Coin is usually from Turrani or the south?"</p><p>"To that, I must then refer to the next bit of news, which is of a vastly different nature, I'm afraid," he said, glancing up at Aegon with a smirk as he spoke in Malhada.</p><p>"What news? Stop playing your games, this is not the time or place."</p><p>"My apologies, your Honor. I mean only to act in a manner suitable and acceptable to nobility. Courtesies are not of the most dire of import, but they do distinguish us from the common rabble, don't they?"</p><p>"Since you are little more than that, stop trying so hard to convince us otherwise. We would not be so reminded of your low birth and previous station if you didn't so overtly rub your new nobility in our noses every time you tried to speak."</p><p>"Again, your Honor, my sincerest and deepest of apologies. I will get to the point now." <em>He spoke that way again just to rub it deeper into his nose. </em>"The word from Turrani and their magistrate is jarring, to say the least."</p><p>"What is the word then?"</p><p>"In fact, there is no word. The magistrate is not here. He is not said to be on his way, and all correspondence with the south has ceased since the Empress' death. Their magistrate and certain nobles were all summoned, and that summons was accepted and confirmed, but since, there is nothing but dark and silence from the south."</p><p>"Is he stuck on the road? It is certainly a long distance to travel. Is there some reason that has been given?"</p><p>"Those that have heard say that emissaries have been sent out and Shiku's whole network of eyes has been searching tirelessly for anything from either the traveling party or the city itself. Nothing has been seen. No words have been exchanged. In fact, Shiku fears her eyes in the south have been closed forever. All in that room fear something else is happening."</p><p>A brief silence erupted as all three seated seemed pensive in deep and potentially dark thoughts. The magistrate was the first to break the oppressive quite, "What else of the meeting? What else was discussed? Who else was appointed?"</p><p>The thin man adjusted himself on his pillow, trying to position himself comfortably without appearing the subservient, keeping a straight and regal posture while vacillating back and forth on his bony arse. Shiku and Kaono kept an intense and deliberate stare as if dreading the rest of the man's message. "All are new to the Elders, save Shiku, as Khiana wants to follow in her name sake."</p><p>"That is wise of Khiana. Promoting my dolt of a son besides, if she were to have kept the lot of them, I'd fear they were part of this conspiracy we're dealing with."</p><p>"However, only Horace's son, Kit Nan Lindt, has risen to his father's seat, but save him, the rest are all Yits. I fear the quiet from the south and whispers of the Old Ones have sparked a resentment for Legs in both the capitol and the court."</p><p>"It is as I feared. So, what did Essary and Deet say as they were escorted out? Do they know of any word from Turrani?" Kaono asked, referring to two of the former elders that were among those in the meeting Aegon and the magistrate attended, one with the Westerosi style doublet, and the other eccentrically garnished like a peacock.</p><p>"Their eyes and ears have also gone dark. Though they protested all was well in Turrani the last they had heard of it, and they too received word from the magistrate that he would be making his progress here, it has been almost a full moon's turn since any have heard or seen anything, including the magistrate himself and his traveling party."</p><p>Kiku spoke up, "I have heard nothing of any of this."</p><p>"And how could that be?" ReGar asked, his tone teetering on sarcasm. "Your eyes and ears see all, don't they?"</p><p>"Admittedly, I have not actively listened to my ears in weeks, but that doesn't mean they do not hear. I bid you both goodbye. I must confer with my whispers. I will see you at the ceremony this evening." With a bow to Kaono and a slight nod to ReGar, she rose, scurried, and quickly slid through the door.</p><p>"She's still graceful for an old bat, huh dragon man?" ReGar said in Malhada as she closed the door behind her, trying to illicit a small response from Aegon, catching him off guard. As he studied Aegon, his beady eyes smiling, thinking he'd been clever, his face fell in disappointment as Aegon returned with only a blank puzzled stare and silence. "Either a good liar or a fool," ReGar said, turning back to Kaono, "Neither of which make for a good head of your guard your Honor."</p><p>"Worry less about him and more about what you've said. The court has been split here since our emancipation from Yi Ti. Yits and Legs together. Now the Elders are all but washed Yit, for Horace was never interested in the welfare of those like him. I doubt his son will champion the Legs any more than he did."</p><p>"Yes, it seems. The Yits have finally seized control of the Elders. Though, Khiana is still <em>all </em>Leg. That must still count for something." When ReGar said, "<em>all,"</em> his inflection seemed suspiciously accusatory somehow. The magistrate stared back in silence for a moment or two, locking eyes with the thin man before him in an almost scolding scowl.</p><p>"The empress of Leng will always be Leg. That is how it has been. That is how it will always be, but the Elders hold much sway over the day to day rule of our land, and for no one in Leng Yi to have the Legs of the south in their minds, we will surely lose all the progress we've made with the South-"</p><p>"If we haven't already," ReGar interrupted.</p><p>Kaono stared off past the both of them for another few moments, holding his chin beard. He let out his breath and asked, "And what of our traveling party? What news do you have of them."</p><p>"Jugo is as silent as ever, though he is more melancholy than his usual air of seriousness. He now serves as the Head of his father's guard, saying you would understand."</p><p>"I do not understand and was never even consulted. When did this occur?"</p><p>"Within the last day or two. It was done behind closed doors, and your grandson is so silent, nothing comes from his lips, so, I apologize for not coming to you sooner. I only heard of this early this morning."</p><p>"And the rest of them?"</p><p>"Other than visits to brothels and markets, there is not much else to report. There are whispers of a meeting between your son and the nobles that traveled with us, but at most, they shared whores, not plots or politics."</p><p>"I see. Very well. Thank you for your time and your words. I have much to do today to prepare for the ceremony. If you would please excuse me as I return to my chamber. Aegon will see you out."</p><p>"Your Honor." He said, gracefully standing and bowing to Kaono.</p><p>"Sheehin," the magistrate replied, with a nod even less deliberate than Kiku's.</p><p>Aegon stood as straight and as still as Jugo would, feigning ignorance to the next command he knew he was about to receive. Kaono then commanded in Valyrian, himself seemingly forgetting their rouse. "See him out and return hastily. I do not want to be unprotected."</p><p>"Yes, your Honor." Aegon responded, and proceeded to walk ReGar toward the apartments' entrance.</p><p>ReGar turned to Aegon as they walked, his silver and white robe loosely flowing a twirling as he moved, "My room is near the guards' barracks here. Some of us are sparring in the training yard which is just outside my room about midday, hours before the ceremony. If you are relieved of duty, I invite you to enjoy some soku and ale and show off these impressive sword skills I keep hearing about," he said in Valyrian.</p><p>"Though as tempting as it would be to cross swords with you, Sheep shin, my place is here protecting his Honor."</p><p>"Another time then?" he asked, almost excited for an opportunity.</p><p>"Another time."</p><p>Aegon closed the door and locked it behind him, returning to the magistrate's chambers.</p><p>"It is worse than I feared," Kaono said, sitting at the edge of his feather filled mattress, his features distraught with thought and plots.</p><p>"What more do we have to do before the ceremony?" Aegon asked, referring to the magistrate's conversation with ReGar.</p><p>"Nothing, I just wanted that snake out of here. He told me all he was going to. As much truth as he shared about my son and the Elders, he was hiding things about the other nobles and their meeting with my son. One of the things my son hates about me is my whoring, so there is little chance of his meeting with the rest of them being anything other than plots and politics."</p><p>"Which ReGar knows full well, most like."</p><p>"Yes. He said that to say there is something to it, without actually saying it at all. As useless as he can be, even his uselessness is of some use. Though he probably knows what was said, he serves them too and cannot be the one who says it. But he said enough by saying nothing. And that was clearly his intent."</p><p>"Is he to be trusted?" Aegon asked, confused as to how honest ReGar seemed in his dishonesty.</p><p>"No. But no less than any of these others and for different reason. ReGar only seeks to further his station, but not at the expense of the whole of Leng. Despite his appearance, he is as Lengii as any Yit or Leg, for he's the mix of all manner of peoples that have dwelled here and assimilated over the ages. Though uglier than most, his look is the look of a true Lengii. He cares not for Yit or Leg. He only wishes to see all men prosper, for when others prosper, he prospers all the more."</p><p>"What does he even do? How is he even here?"</p><p>"ReGar served a noble Yit for many many years, Jojo Tain. Tain owned the lands of the Leng Ma coast, including the harbor. The taxes and tolls all boats pay in port go to the Lord of Palkumchi, Tain's seat. Since the old man refused to marry and sired no children, upon his death, he bestowed his land and all his fortunes to his servant and guard Reamon Gardulos, or as we call him ReGar. Since then, the worm has been wriggling higher and higher the more wealth and influence he cultivates. I do not trust him, but I do not think he is involved or behind what is going on in our land."</p><p>"Do you have any idea who might be?"</p><p>"Yes," he said, shaking his head as if he were ashamed. "My son."</p><p>In the center of the palace square, servants and palace attendants erected an enormous spiraling staircase of painted white wood, with golden rails and a dais at its precipice with a view of the entire city from over one hundred feet up. Its construction had taken over a week, beginning the same day Shinsou's corpse was found a mere few blocks away, and the monstrous white beacon seemed the only bright spot in the entire capitol.</p><p>Since the first ascension, the ascension of Khiara the Great, each new empress has climbed the steps to the heavens, and been anointed by her father, who has always been the Master of the Land. Over the years, the steps to the heavens became taller and more ornate, but the ceremony remained the same, according to Kiku's lessons anyway.</p><p>Khiana was set to climb those steps as the sun descended into twilight, yet the nobles began filling the square soon after noon, sullenly crowding the courtyard with a mix of uneasy and eager faces, all cautiously optimistic of the rule of their new deity and fearful of another tragic attack. Aegon shared these sentiments, as the assassins would have no greater opportunity to cripple the land's leadership structure than to kill the only remaining member of the Divine Line of Khiara left alive. And though the steps were tall and the courtyard was protected by the palace walls, any well-placed arrow or bolt could do it. He'd seen further shots reach their mark, and the soon-to-be empress would be climbing the steps alone, as the custom dictated.</p><p>He thought of that night in the bathhouse and the young woman who turned out to be much more than just another beautiful suitor. When she spoke of her choice in a husband, it didn't occur to Aegon at the time that it was any different for her than other Lengii woman, but as the custom has always been, the Goddess Empress of Leng chose two men to marry. One, of native Lengii descent, and the other usually of Yi Ti descent, though some Goddesses had previously courted outsiders for their second husband even though they had always settled for one descendant from Yi Ti. <em>Could she truly choose who she wishes? Am I foolish to think she'd choose me?</em></p><p>As his mind asked questions, he felt guilt well into him as the thoughts of another woman felt as if he were betraying Nahknani. <em>Is it too soon to think of another? </em>Though it had been almost two years now since her eyes closed for the last time, those beautifully wondrous eyes, her memory still lingered in his every thought and could be seen in every sight. But like Khiana said, <em>would she want me to never feel the touch of another? </em>Aegon both laughed and almost cried hearing her say, "After laying with me, if you ever lay with another, I'll kill you and her both!"</p><p>"Aegon," the magistrate summoned from his chambers. "It is time enough. Let us make our way to the ceremony. Keep your eyes out for anything."</p><p>Aegon turned from the window, enjoying one last glance of the decorated square below and joined the magistrate's side. They departed their apartments and Aegon escorted him through the palace to the courtyard. Once through the marble halls and lamp lit trellis, they reached the gardens and continued toward foot of the steps to the heavens, where Kaono, Kiku, Shiku, and Horace Nan Lindt were assigned to watch. Though they were among the closest guests in attendance, the view of the podium above the stairs was impossible, and the assigned area could have been seen as both an honor or a slight. Kaono didn't know which was closer to the true intent.</p><p>The sun still hovered over the horizon, setting with the blur of distant clouds, coloring the deep blue sky with pinks and purples, <em>like her eyes, </em>casting a beautiful backdrop to the green, gold, jade, and crimson banners and streamers that seemed to be flowing from every corner and perch within the square. Twenty or so men, strapping and dressed in glossy black leather armor, helmed with the face of an ape like he'd met in the forest, stood guard around the base of the stairway, with spears fixed with both a long blade at its top end and a pointed barb, good for both thrusting and slashing. According to Kiku's lessons, the Imperial Guard was made up of volunteers who were all made eunuchs upon joining. Kiku explained many freed Unsullied found their way here over there years to join, as they were most welcome and already castrated, but the Imperial Guard was still a lofty station to hold, and attracted more men than Aegon thought would ever consider such an offering.</p><p>Around them, the square bustled with a soft buzz, as this was not a truly triumphant celebration as much as it was a tense obligation, the anxiety palpable enough to feel through the soft commotion and collective anticipation.</p><p>From behind him, a horn sounded, and a procession of more Imperial Guards. Two columns widely spaced from each other, began marching in unison, clacking the cobblestone court beneath their leather boots as if the percussion to the brass blasts from the horn. A herald yelled out in Malhada, "Here comes Khiana, the daughter of her holiness Khissara, and the next in the line of Khiara the Great! Make way for the Goddess Among Us! Make Way! Make Way!"</p><p>The horns sounded again, this time in rhythmic quick blasts, the melody of which he had never heard before but still sounded like an old familiar tune. Three servant girls in sheer robes walked first through the formation of guards, dropping blue and red flower petals on the ground. Then Choyko emerged from the garden, walking through the column to a mix of sullen mourning and hopeful hoorahs from the crowd, mostly nobles, as the former Master of the Land waved once to the crowd with a forced smile, and continued the rest of his walk to the steps with his head down and his eyes stern and fixed straight ahead.</p><p>He ascended the stairs, as was the custom, and throughout his trip up it appeared a labor of mixed emotions. He ascended to see his daughter raised, but only after his wife had fallen. The dichotomy of the moment was evident in the mostly expressionless look on his face, as he walked right by Kaono and Aegon at the bottom of the stairs as he began his climb, and kept the same blank gaze until he reached the top, or as far as Aegon could see with such poor a position of the ceremony.</p><p>When he reached the top, he must have gestured to the crowd, as the crowd rumbled a bit more loudly once he reached it. Choyko was never a man of the people in the sense that he was ever among them, Kaono once explained. But he was always extremely well respected by his subjects, as in comparison to Shinsou, he was blemishless, powerful, and loyal.</p><p>Traditionally, the custom would dictate the former Master of the Jade Sea walking the soon-to-be empress to the stairway. Since Shinsou was unable to perform this act, it was her half-brother, Calho Chou that walked Khiana through the garden and towards the stairs, flanked by another ten guards keeping a close watch of the walls and now livelier noble crowd in the square. She was even more beautiful than Aegon remembered, smiling and waving to the crowd as she walked past. Her long, flexed legs took broad graceful strides, slipping in and out of the slits in her short silk green dress, showing up to the top of her thigh of her gleaming almost golden chocolate skin, glittering in the rays from the setting sun and the lit lamps as if gold dust had been sprinkled on her every inch. Her midsection was bare, exposed in the cut of her dress, to show a golden lace naval ring and attached golden chains that connected in long dangling strings to her waist and wrists. The neck line of her dress dove deep into her cleavage and the trimmings around the soft swell of her chest were a similar golden lace, framing the chocolate soft, glimmering skin, with even more glinting shine, just below the same necklace she wore in the Elder's meeting, a choker with a dark brown, almost glowing stone on the middle of her throat.</p><p>But her face, her beautiful smiling face, was adorned with nothing more than her shining smile and the glowing green of her eyes, cheerful and spread, as if they too smiled. Though the attractiveness of her sculpted and supple body was enough to make any man's blood pump faster, which was as undeniable now as it had been in the bathhouse, it was her face that kept his gaze.</p><p>He shuttered thinking about Nahknani for a moment, but couldn't help think of Khiana's lips. Her kiss. The glowing green of her eyes. It was the unique and undeniable stunning appeal of her gorgeous face that stopped his heart from hurting, and then quickly began to make it hurt even more.</p><p>If Nahknani had lived, he could still see the beauty in Khiana. All men could. But since she was gone, and the only remnants of their love the pain in his heart and soul, he saw the promise of hope in Khiana's perfection. She was the face, hers were the lips that asked, "Did she wish for you to be miserable?"</p><p>Aegon was miserable. He had been since he could remember. He hadn't been truly happy since immediately after the first time he slept with Nahknani. For during the last time they laid with each other, Aegon knew he was leaving as soon as she slept, and he was not truly happy, deep down knowing it could be their final moments together. There was a simple tragedy in his choices. Choosing to save those people and fight the Ghiscari, he chose against having their love, and that was what was most painful of all.</p><p>
  <em>She knew. They all knew. Ours was never going to be a peaceful end. Yet, they followed me anyway. They believed it was worth it. She believed.</em>
</p><p>"Did she wish for you to be miserable?"</p><p><em>No </em>he thought. <em>And drinking in the sight of this woman is bringing me happiness.</em></p><p>She strode confidently and gracefully toward the staircase, passing Aegon at the foot of the stairs, catching eyes with him. There was no recognition there, but her eyes lingered on him longer than he expected, peering up and down long enough to suggest she saw him too, and in a similar way. She turned, without a gesture or an expression, and began her ascent, carefully placing her wedged sandals on each step as if not to fall.</p><p>The tight spiral of the steps made the climb an arduous task, especially for a seven foot tall woman in raised sandals and a tight dress. Ever so often she'd stop to wave to the crowd, an endearing savvy display by royalty, but dangerous. Aegon scanned the palace walls for anything out of the ordinary seeing nothing that caused him pause, and returned his eyes to the sight of her legs ascending. He could have looked all the way up her dress if he so desired. Though he had already seen that vision and could picture it in his mind as she climbed out of the hot water of the dragon pool and stood before him fully naked, he was content to follow the flex and curve of her long teak legs, her calf strained and enticingly firm from the raised sandals, and the soft caress of the setting sun shining off of them. He caught Kaono looking at him in a scolding expression. "Of all the people here, I would have thought you would be focused on the view up there too, you dog. Don't judge me." He silently returned to looking down at the ground, respectful of the new empress about to rise.</p><p>When she reached the platform at the top of the stairs, she stepped on to it and out of his view. She walked to the center of it to the roar of the crowd. She had reached the top, and a collective sigh was let out just before the screams of celebration. The crowd quickly died down as if they were ordered to, and he heard the smooth still voice he had come to recognize as hers proclaim out, regally, almost divinely, "People of Leng. Today, we celebrate both the great past that has been ripped away from us too soon, and the hopeful future as bright as the rising sun. I speak to you with a heavy heart, as both my mother and my mother's husband have been taken from this world to soon. All grieve at the loss of those they love, but our mourning was forced by the invisible hands of a rising and threatening force that aims to tear down the Leng we have built over generations and generations. With my heavy heart, I also speak to you today with an invigorated mind and spirit, and a burning will, hotter than the rising sun."</p><p>"I stand before you today, your new Empress, and I vow, upon my divinity, that those in the shadows that seek to tear down this great nation my mother helped build will taste justice. I vow upon my divinity, that any opposed to a free and equal Leng will soon cow in fear from the wrath of a Goddess. From the highest of noble seats to the most common within hearing of my voice have heard whispers of the Old Ones, and tales of monsters and demons from beneath the earth. To you, I say that no being, whether above or below the surface, can hide from the swift and cruel vengeance I will serve to any and all who were involved in these slayings, and upon my divinity, I will cleanse our land of the evil men and creatures that seek to destroy it." The crowd roared. Faces around him, moments before sunken, shaken, and heartless, ignited with the fierce pride in their new leader. Their new deity. The uproarious cheers and enthusiastic growls came from a desperate populous that had lost hope, and now after her speech, had found it. With that hope, came the adversarial defiance against that that frightened them, and their calls were as much an attack against their invisible foes, as they were in support of their new Empress. "And from this day, until my last day," she screamed over them, causing them all to stir back down to an anticipating quiet, "I will fight for Leng and against all that oppose it! For Leng!"</p><p>"For Leng!" They all yelled back. Even Aegon, who couldn't help but also be similarly stirred by her words. The crowd continued to cheer loudly and incessantly. Men around him and Kaono jumping and hugging each other as if the city had won some great victory. For in their eyes, upon hearing the speech of the young girl some feared too meek to lead through these dark times, not only were they wrong in doubting the blood of the Gods, they couldn't have been more wrong. The young woman before them was as fierce as any to ascend, and the collective hearts of the city, though still heavy with loss, beat stronger and harder upon hearing her proclamation of war.</p><p>Aegon feared for those she declared war upon, and hoped her war was incited with just intentions. But the more he thought about it, he feared most for the people of Southern Leng, for they were more than likely the easy enemy. An enemy that seemed almost too easy.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The ascension.</p><p>Let me know what you think.</p><p>ReGar.  What is his deal?</p><p>Thanks</p><p>HS</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>10</p><p>As the days and weeks passed since the Ascension, there was still no word from the South. Aegon stayed close to the magistrate's side, who was less and less involved with the Elders and decisions in the capitol, but still felt tied to Leng Yi until the situation of the south became clearer.</p><p>Kiku spent most if not all of her time with Kaono, whispering about the goings on in the Elder's meetings, as well as the seemingly fruitless attempts at breaking the silence from Turrani. The other Leng Ma nobility was even less involved, wallowing and whining away in residences not fit for their perceived stature in society and woefully uninformed as to what their purpose in the capitol even was. From time to time individual members of the party would stop by the magistrate's apartments to complain and contrast the space he was given to their small hovels, but most often than not, the magistrate would turn them away, too busy with nothing to deal with their self-important issues.</p><p>With no official word from Southern Leng, rumors became the only stories being told around the city regarding the state of the south, as sensational tales from the return of the Jackals, to the overthrowing of the magistrate by the Old Ones became as much the truth as the silence that continued from informants.</p><p>When Aegon was able to sleep, which was still very little as he felt the danger to the magistrate's life remained high, he dreamt of the two women his mind couldn't stop spinning around: the nightmare of the one he'd lost, and the enigma of the one who sauntered slowly across a hot spring into his lap.</p><p>He woke one morning to an official sounding knock on the apartment's door. Rolling from the floor in his studded leather armor uniform, which he wore most days and many nights, he shuffled his dark mane and shook his head awake. Each day, Kiku and Kaono continued to sharpen his Malhada, to the point now he could understand some of Kiku's previous perverted mumblings about him, and had began to use it so much, he almost called to the knocking visitor in their native tongue. Catching himself before he slipped, he climbed to his feet, gripping his aching back, and walked, still slightly asleep, to answer the door.</p><p>It was early. The palace had its own black bird that crowed the servants awake, and that damned bird had still yet to call. As he strode to the door, a window opening displayed a mostly dark courtyard, the suns bright beams only barely filtering in from the horizon in a soft orange glow, he figured it would be at least an hour before he heard anyone awake. <em>Who could it be this early?</em></p><p>He reached for his sword belt, strapped it around him with haste, and stood ready at the door, relaxed, but necessarily prepared if need be. His reflexes wouldn't be at their sharpest, but he'd be safe and cautious as he opened to see who wished to call at such an early hour.</p><p>The door opened a crack to reveal a small young woman, dressed in the black shroud typical of the Empress' attendants, looking down at her feet, and pacing in place anxiously. "What business do you have with his honor?" he asked in Malhada. He was instructed that he could say this phrase with confidence and still keep up the ruse.</p><p>Without a word she simply extended her petite hand clutched around a small rolled parchment, handed it to him, and left as quickly as she had arrived. Aegon held the note in his hand, pondering the possible ways it could pose a threat, and wondered what could be so urgent and secretive that it couldn't have waited until dawn.</p><p>It was certainly a creative way to kill, if indeed this was a plot, so he imagined all the possible ways the note could end in his charge's demise. He had heard, once, of a powder a letter could be dusted with which would prove poisonous once the intended reader opened it. The powder would puff up and once breathed in, would suffocate the reader. Aegon opened the wax seal, covering his mouth and nose, and shook it to ensure any breathable powder dispersed.</p><p>He had also heard of a liquid that could be dripped onto a parchment and when touched, could cause almost instantaneous death. So before handling it further, he sniffed the note from what he surmised was a safe distance, hoping to smell such a poison if it existed. He didn't know what it smelled like, and felt uneasy as he realized any powder still left on the letter, if there was any, would now be up his nose it, but after his investigation, the note seemed safe on its face. He did not dare to read it, for fear of reprimand from both Kaono or Kiku, but at least there seemed to be no direct threat from the physical parchment itself. What it said was a different matter. <em>Dark wings, dark words. </em>Though the dark bird that brought this note was of a different variety, he felt the saying still held it's meaning.</p><p>"Your Honor," Aegon said, softly jostling the magistrate from his slumber. He was a sound sleeper, barely moving as Aegon nudged him. He was able to sleep through an assassination attempt, making it no surprise he slept through Aegon's initial attempts to wake him.</p><p>"Kaono Soon! A message for your Honor from her Holiness!" Aegon didn't yell as much as he projected his full voice, but the change in volume and official nature of what he was saying jolted the magistrate awake.</p><p>"What. . . What. . . What is it, son?" he said, his voice gargled and groggy.</p><p>Aegon extended his hand, offering the note and said, "A message from one of the Empress' attendants. She delivered it just now, said nothing, and retreated back down the hall. I inspected it for poison or anything nefarious, and it seems to be safe."</p><p>"Seems to be?" he asked, now concerned.</p><p>"Your Honor, its as safe as I can tell. I'm a fighter. Not a maester."</p><p>"Fair enough. Opening it up like this, do you know what it says?"</p><p>"No, Your Honor. I know you like your messages to be unread when presented to you."</p><p>"And I thank you for that. Some privacy must still remain between us, even if you've shared my room with me since I can remember. You snore, by the way. Loudly." He smirked and looked down at the note, reading it silently to himself. After reading it, he paused, looking out into nothing, perhaps thinking about what it said.</p><p>"What did it say?" Aegon asked curiously.</p><p>"We are to meet with Her Holiness at dawn in the Elder's Chambers. It doesn't elaborate on for what reason, but I think I know what she will say."</p><p>"What will she say?"</p><p>"She'll say I've overstayed my welcome and to return to Leng Ma. She will also recommend taking my traveling party with me. After that, she will also ask something of me, which is the only mystery to this meeting. I'm hopeful she won't ask for too much."</p><p>Aegon sought Kiku out and asked if she could help manage his physical appearance and make him an acceptable sight for the meeting. "Now you are finding <em>me </em>to make you beautiful. I liked it more when I forced you because it was my intent to see you this way. Now you wish to be pleasing for other eyes I presume."</p><p>"You presume much, you ol' bat. Just make me presentable."</p><p>"You know who runs that bathhouse, don't you? Do you think my ears wouldn't hear of your secret?"</p><p>"What are you talking about?" he asked, feigning ignorance, which didn't work on his tutor.</p><p>"Not only did I teach you, Malhada, but I taught you to lie as well. You're shit at both. Yes, I know who you want to impress. In fact, I'm impressed that she was impressed already, based on what I was told. But no one other than my daughter, myself, and you should know. Do not even bring it up to Her Holiness. What occurred that evening never happened."</p><p>"Understood. Now brush this lion's mane for me, if you will," he sat down in a chair in the solar, presenting the tangled dark mess on his head.</p><p>"Keep the uniform though. I'll treat it so it doesn't smell like you died in it, but you look better in uniform. I'll need it now, though, go on, remove it." She smirked as she finished, her eyes fixed on his frame.</p><p>He slipped off the leather armor down to his undergarments and tossed the studded leather to his leathery skinned teacher. I'll send up some girls for a bath, though admittedly I'd love to be there, they'll be more efficient with their time than I'd be. Once washed, I'll have a better chance of making you presentable. I'll be but a moment with the uniform." She turned to walk away, stepping slowly, then turned as if she forgot something. "Who is guarding the magistrate?"</p><p>"Two men from ReGar's guard." Kiku's eyebrows raised. "I know," he said in response to her expression, "I thought the same. But Kaono assured me the safest he'd be from ReGar, would be if it were his responsibility to keep him safe. Whether he wants him dead, the magistrate isn't sure, but ReGar would never risk the shame against his name if it were known, so entrusting his safety publicly to ReGar himself, ensures his safety from him. If that makes sense."</p><p>"It does, in a way. But men are still too clever to be intelligent. That man has done much and more for this great land, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't as much because of his luck as his wit."</p><p>"Be that as it may, they are in the next room and my dirk is right here," he said, reaching to the sword belt on the table to his left. "I won't let anything happen to him while I'm within earshot of his cries for help."</p><p>"Let's hope you stay that close for some time."</p><p>Almost immediately after Kiku left, giggling attendants arrived through the service door within the apartments, knocking to be let inside to draw his bath. He frisked them, still half dressed in his small clothes, as was necessary to conclude they meant no harm. Each girl smirked through their veil at him as he searched, uneasy with having to check their bodies for hidden weaponry. He gently patted them, and ignored their private areas all together, focusing more on the sheer fabric of their attire, and the evident lack of any blades or tubes of poison. Once cleared, the young women entered and began filling a smooth ivory bath for him to bathe.</p><p>Once filled, he stripped, plunged into it, and quickly made work of his hands, scrubbing away the smells and build-up of the past days and nights. Most nobles would allow the fine hands of the young women to do the work, but Aegon already felt guilty with his thoughts of another. He found it despicable a thought to even begin to ponder more and more. Especially if it would turn into every beautiful woman he'd see from now on. <em>Have I turned a dog so quickly? Or once I'm over this feeling of betrayal, will my thoughts will eventually return to how they were? Before there was her. Before there was us.</em></p><p>"Thank you," he said in Malhada, "On the table there. For you." He pointed to a sack of silvers he had set out for whoever came to attend him. A humble orphan himself, he felt the need to share whatever wealth he had with whomever he deemed in need of it more. Especially after achieving his first wealth, the Captain's wealth, and losing it to the bottom of the Summer Sea.</p><p>The women grabbed the bag, smiled, bowed, and scurried from the chambers as quickly as the money was offered. As they left, he sat back into the tub and continued to run water with his hands over his body and hair.</p><p>When Kiku returned, he was just stepping out of the tub. The old woman snuck up on him and smacked his rear before handing him linens to dry with. He could only laugh as her wrinkled hands flexed from the hit, hurting herself more than him most like, and she began to rub his back and legs with her linen to aid in drying him before he sat down.</p><p>She worked with his hair for half the hour, and trimmed the scruff from around his face with a straight blade. Then, she presented him with new small clothes and freshly cleaned armor to dress himself. Once dressed, she squeezed a fragrant mist around him that smelled of earth and flowers, the cloud finding its way into his mouth and nose, forcing a sneeze and cough before he could catch his breath.</p><p>"What the fuck is that?" he asked, waving fresh air into his face.</p><p>"Something that'll make you smell less like the ass of your horse."</p><p>Aegon and Kaono entered the Elder's chambers to her Her Holiness at the Head of the table with Kaono's son, Kato, seated to her left. "Magistrate, it is good to see you. Please, sit," she gestured to the open seat to her right, across from his son. "Instruct your guard. He may stand near the door."</p><p>Aegon understood, but gently stepped forward as if he was unaware. "Stand by the door, lad. If you will," Kaono asked in Valyrian, much nicer than he had ever been to anyone in Aegon's presence. Kaono continued to his seat and gingerly sat, making little eye contact if any with his son.</p><p>"Good to see you, father. It has been some time," Kato said with half a grimace to his face. He was the image of his father, just thicker, and obviously much younger. Kaono must have conceived him later in his life, for where Kaono resembled a man closer to his eightieth year than his seventieth, Kato looked younger than forty. He kept a stern stillness to his brow, like his son, Jugo, but wore more expression in his face than his stoic offspring. His jet black fascial hair was cut close to his face, framing his lips and jaw, but not hanging down like Kaono's grey chin beard. He wore officer's clothing, with raised shoulders and braided buttons down the front of a blue jacket with gold and green trimmings. Aegon hadn't heard of him serving in any guard or warrior host, but nobles in all lands dressed for war regardless of their proclivity to it. Leng seemed no different.</p><p>"Some time, yes. Yet it feels as nothing has changed. I feel the same towards you, my son, as since the last we spoke." The elder man glared at the younger thicker version of himself with his tone dripped in disdain. All in the room could feel the abrasive energy between the two.</p><p>"Much has happened and there is much to do, so the familial courtesies can wait for your own time, gentlemen. I will waste no more time of yours or mine, Your Honor Soon," Khiana said, gracefully and forcefully taking control of the exchange. "Your presence has been most welcome, and as your family has always been close with mine, I have enjoyed your stay very much. However, our situation requires both of us to cease our mourning and take action."</p><p>"You and your retinue must leave the capitol post haste, Your Honor," Kato broke in with a grin. "You will collect all your nobles and all their men and return to Leng Ma."</p><p>"Kato, I will speak on my own behalf. Thank you," Khiana interjected, shooting a disapproving glance at Kato, then focusing back on Kaono. "Though he needs to be heard less in my presence, your son is right. You and your nobles will return to Leng Ma, and gather up a host to join me and mine own on the Azure Road at the Virgin's Crossing as we begin our Imperial Progress to Turrani."</p><p>"You mean to call our men to war?" Kaono asked, hiding how incensed he must have felt. "There has been no definitive word of any uprising."</p><p>"No, there hasn't," she answered. "But there hasn't been any good news either. And we have waited a moon's turn for the magistrate and there has been no word from Turrani or the road of him or the city at all. I will not assume the worst, but I will be prepared for it. We will have a progress from Leng Yi to Turrani. All that serve and love Leng will be rewarded with the sight of their new Empress. All those that seek to tear us down will be erased from this world forever. This is not war, Your Honor. This is sovereignty."</p><p>"That is a wise course, your Holiness, you seem to live up to the name in which you were given. Some say Khiana the Wise was our greatest ruler, taking what her mother had made and forming it into the Leng we love today. I will make the preparations to leave at once. Though, as both an experienced ruler and long trusted council of your kin, I implore you to act with caution in this Progress. Please do all within your power to keep from pushing our land to war. War with ourselves will destroy all that your mother has mended since the Jackals' Uprising. The bloodiest battles a land can wage, are the ones within its own borders against its own people."</p><p>"I appreciate your wisdom, Your Honor, but your place for council and decisions is Leng Ma. You have ruled there for decades with great esteem, however, I am the Goddess Among Men. I rule Leng from tip to tip, and my sense tells me war is inevitable. I hear your words, but do not presume to think I must heed them. I outrank you, Your Honor, and you were not chosen to my Elders. I thank you for your dedicated service to this land, but I will not hear of your teachings again. Presume not that I need to learn from you. Obey my orders to assemble your host, and inform them that they are under my direct command. If I call for war, I need to know your men are mine. Will that be a problem, Your Honor?"</p><p>"No, your holiness. My men are yours," he lowered his head in deference, and what also looked like shame.</p><p>"Very well. Thank you for meeting with us so early. I expect with this much time, your host will be able to depart before evening."</p><p>"I will do all I can to make it so, Your Holiness."</p><p>"See yourself out, Your Honor. My thanks for your continued support." Her face was cool, and Kato's grin only ever stretched. Aegon had never seen the magistrate be so thoroughly owned by another in conversation. She had every bit his wit and a whip of a tongue to match. As young and obviously strikingly feminine that she was, maybe she overcompensated to show her power and make it well known to all those beneath her who ruled Leng and all its subjects.</p><p>"C'mon, Aegon. We must needs make preparations to leave," Kaono said in Valyrian.</p><p>"Actually, Ser Aegon," Khiana said in Valyrian herself, "you will not be joining the magistrate." She changed back to Malhada and addressed Kaono. "I will be taking your guard into my service, good friend. You may have him help you in gathering your retinue, but he will be staying under my service until I deem my life is no longer in harm's way. Please inform him and Kiku that they will be staying. He as my personal guard, Kiku as his translator. And tell her that she must quickly progress with his lessons in our tongue, for I will not continue to speak through her mouth to him for much longer. It is a nuisance as it is."</p><p>"Very well, your Holiness," he said, his eyes shifting from the uncomfortable shame to a subtle fear. "Your will be done. I will see to it they are informed."</p><p>"Think of it as your Ascension gift," Kato said, chiming in with an aggressive grin, the largest yet. "Our Empress deserves the best this realm has to offer in all manner of service. Her protection is of the most import."</p><p>"Thank you, Kato, but again, while I am in your presence your voice need not speak for me, about me, after me, or at all." She glared at him angrily, then turned to the magistrate again. "Once again, your familial feud delays me. Thank you, Kaono. Good day." The magistrate nodded and turned to the door.</p><p>"Let's go," he said in Valyrian. Aegon followed in a stunned silence.</p><p>All that had traveled in the magistrate's party were so enthralled with the idea of returning to Leng Ma, the magistrate decided to frame their departure as a concession made by the Empress more than a direct order. He regained much favor, especially with the nobles he'd ignored for two weeks since the ascension, avoiding their visits and averting their messages as he mourned, contemplated, and lingered stagnantly in his grief and stressful concerns about the assassinations and the state of Leng as a whole.</p><p>Within four hours, before midday, most of the traveling party was readied and lined up for the precession, all of the guard ahorse and anxious to depart leaving only the nobles in litters left with more baggage to pack and carry, and more people to fit into their carts and carriages. After they had informed all necessary, Kaono returned to his apartments one last time to gather his things, but more importantly, confer with Aegon one final time before they parted ways.</p><p>"Don't get emotional, old man. I respect you, but I was not much more than your penitent servant," Aegon japed, hoping the man would understand the playfulness of his tone. In the moons since meeting him, Kaono Soon had proven a truer friend than any he could claim in a while. Aegon was saddened that they had to say farewell.</p><p>"I'll miss you too, but not for just your company. I fear that my son has succeeded in making me vulnerable again, removing two of my best guards in the midst of this unknown threat, especially after Khiana seems to being going on the offensive. I sympathize with her stance. She has a bold heart it seems, but I'm afraid she approaches this march with blinders on. She only sees the evidence against the Legs. The Old Ones, the Leg assassins, the Soul Shard, all implicate Legs in general, but no one specific. Yet, if these were truly Leg assassins, why kill influential members of the leadership of Leng that are pro-Leg. No one championed the South like my . . . .Khissara. No one loved Legs, in the most literal sense, more than Shinsou. And since the Jackals, I've re-opened trade with Turrani and spoke for the inclusion of mine shares, a policy of revenue split equal between the owners of the land mines are found in, and the workers responsible for the labor. If that policy passes, all the mines in Northern Leng would split their profits equally with the Leg miners tasked with harvesting the gems and minerals. If the Legs mean to start war, why kill the only ones who support them?"</p><p>"Because you are the magistrate. Khissara was the Empress, and Shinsou was the Master of the Jade Sea. I know not of Lengii politics, but to start a rebellion, you take out the rulers. I know not of the friction with your son either. Why would he take me from you just to leave you vulnerable?" Aegon asked. "Why do you not trust him so?"</p><p>Kaono paused, leaned into Aegon and whispered, "Let us finish this conversation outside." Aegon understood. It would be impossible to tell how many ears were listening to them, Valyrian speaking or not.</p><p>Kaono directed his new guards what to carry down to his litter as Aegon looked for his own things. Kaono did not seem pleased with the choices he had of guards, so he decreed they would rotate until sonm proved worthy enough. He figured even if none were exceptional, each that served would at least commit their best efforts, in order to gain favor and a title like, Your Honor, which meant more to those in Leng, Aegon was beginning to learn, than even in Westeros.</p><p>Aegon grabbed only his one robe, his small clothes, his swords, his dirk, the belt, and the jahkyar cloak with the red woman's amulet sewn inside. Another attendant had found Kaono and Aegon after the meeting, to direct Aegon to where his new quarters would be and when to report there this very evening. Wrapping everything up in the cloak except the weapons and belt he strapped to his waist, he bid the spacious apartments good bye and followed the magistrate to see him off.</p><p>Kaono seemed to creep through the palace, keeping a strict eye on the movements of those around him. His eyes darted from each passerby, judging their intent, a sharp and palpable fear evident in his manner before he continued the conversation they started inside.</p><p>His honor glad handed a few of his subjects, accepting their thanks for the quick departure, and nodded to Aegon to ride to the front of the train. The magistrate was given a new horse in the place of Black. He hadn't named it, which he promised he would before nightfall, but he couldn't settle on Patches, when he also considered Spots, and White'N'Brown. Aegon shook his head thinking <em>the Soons are terrible with horse names.</em></p><p>Aegon trotted behind on Pal into the brush away from any spying eyes and ears, dismounted next to the magistrate, and listened to his soft words.</p><p>"Why wasn't Jugo killed?"</p><p>"What?" Aegon asked, puzzled at the question and trying to connect how it related to where they left off upstairs. <em>Is he losing his wits?</em></p><p>"When I was attacked, the Leg assassins spared my grandson. Every guard was killed, you were attacked with steel. Jugo was given a mild poison meant to knock him asleep for a time, but not harm him." Kaono looked around, scanning their surroundings until confirming it safe to continue before he did, "I thought about this over and over again, and I couldn't put it together. It was the only real clue we have in finding who are the specific people behind all this."</p><p>"You think its Kato?" Aegon asked, his tone disappointed, almost dismissive of the idea. Kaono didn't respond. Aegon continued, "You think your son is involved with the attempt on your life because his son was the one who was spared? Didn't it shame your grandson to fail against them? And worse if they were to have succeeded, Jugo would have been the disgrace of your family's name until his death. How could your son hate you so much he would ruin his own son's life to kill you?"</p><p>"I never loved my son, or his mother properly. I was too heart broken from the loss of my one true love. A Leg woman. And he's blamed the entire race ever since." Aegon was taken aback by the honesty of his answer, whispered and low as if it was his life's biggest secret, and somehow it mattered in the affairs of the entirety of the island. One of the guards sounded a horn, signaling all members of their traveling party were present and accounted for. "There is much to tell you, Aegon, but I'm afraid I must go before I give you another history lesson to fall asleep to. When we meet again on the road, I will tell you all you must know to understand my worst fears. Until then, I may be wrong. You may be right. But I've tried to reconcile with my son for years, and he still holds a deep contempt for me, and Legs because deep down, he blames them, all of them, for the distance between myself and his mother."</p><p>"What should I do? Should I keep up this farce? They're not going to try to castrate me, are they?"</p><p>"You should listen to yourself from now on. You are no longer my prisoner. You may be hers, but I do not think she wishes for you to lose your manhood. Tread carefully but remember who you are, who you've become. You're no common man, you're royalty. A dragon king!"</p><p>"Thank you, Your Honor."</p><p>"For what?"</p><p>"Reminding me of that. Before I met you, I was no more than the harbor drunk."</p><p>"When we meet again, we will talk more. But for now, I must lead these helpless sheep of men. They would not know where to piss and shit if I didn't point for them."</p><p>Aegon nodded and bid his former charge farewell. Kaono returned with his own nod, and the two horsed men galloped in separate directions. Aegon didn't know if he felt freer, or more captive than he had been yet. <em>Soon, </em>he thought, <em>I'll find out for myself. Very soon.</em></p><p>
  <strong>A/N</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Thank you all for reading. If you've made it this far, covering Sothoryos (or not) and all of Leng, I so greatly appreciate you, its ridiculous. As a writer who works only for the satisfaction of follows, faves, and comments from my esteemed readers, please hit those buttons to help feed my muse, as the momentum from feedback helps me power through the struggles and doubts of writing, especially with something this ambitious (and difficult).</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Comments, comments, comments, please. I'm dying to hear what you readers think, want, guess about Leng so far. What do you think about the characters? What do you think about the plot so far? Where do you think this is going? I have it planned out in my head, but I'm also curious as to what people think and want to see.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Also, be on the lookout for the Corsair Courtesan, Lady Belaerys. I'm toying with the idea of having her as another perspective in chapters down the road. Let me know what you think. Yes? No? Who is Lady Belaerys? Let me know what you think in the comments, please. (I'm asking nicely. Don't make me beg any more, lol).</strong>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>As always, thank you for reading.</p><p>Let me know what's going through that extremely intelligent head in the comments.</p><p>HS</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>11</p><p>"You've been assigned the Empress, devil. If any harm comes to her or her attendants, I will personally castrate you myself." Aegon's new superior officer, Hanse Trayna, a hulking beast of a man, stood a foot and a half taller than him, looking down on Aegon as he barked commands. He was a former Unsullied sold to a wealthy merchant as a personal guard and pit fighter. The tales told of him around the palace were that he had won his freedom in Meereen then made his way to join the Imperial Guard.</p><p>Aegon had given up on his linguistic ruse, speaking in mostly Malhada since Kaono departed for Leng Ma, trying to coexist with his new brothers in arms, but failing most miserably. "You and Akino will flank the Empress' litter until we reach Virgin's Crossing. Once there, we will update your assignment if necessary," boomed Hanse's accented voice. "Go. Now! GO!"</p><p>Aegon's leather armor was dyed black, to match the garb of the Imperial Guard, but was not considered one of them. He was told by his superiors that he needed to answer to all but novices, as he was only among them because specific directions from the Empress herself. <em>Maybe she does remember me </em>he thought. But then again, if she knew how the men would receive the purple eyed pretty Valyrian with all his man parts still intact, her summons would be more a punishment than reward.</p><p>In the few days that had passed, he was little more than a manual laborer, moving things, cleaning other things, and standing in certain places from time to time. It was as if he was back scrubbing the floor in the dungeon of Leng Ma, except now he understood the disparaging comments that were thrown at him.</p><p>There was a clear jealousy in the tone of each command from his superiors and insult from his brothers in arms. None among them were "chosen" by an Empress, as he was, and most had yet to even met her. From what he could tell, all joined the Imperial Guard for their unrequited love for Khissara, who at least made it a point to mingle with her sworn protectors to gain favor among those tasked with giving up their life for hers. Khiana had yet to meet the lot of them, save those assigned to her personal guard, which was considered an honor years in the earning. Decades for some. Aegon was immediately requested and was treated by others he'd surpassed in kind.</p><p>He was also able to keep his horse, Pal. That turned out to be another reason for their contempt as part of joining the Guard was to give up all worldly possessions. Aegon kept his twin blades, the dirk, the cloak (hidden away in his chambers), and his horse. His new brothers were not happy about that at all.</p><p>Khiana quickly assembled her host, claiming it would be a progress to cure all ills of the land. Treat the sick, shelter the homeless, feed the poor, and of course, root out evil. Within the walls of the city, she was the most feared warrior as well as the most exquisite Lady to have lived, but beyond them, Aegon feared her aggressive rhetoric would make her even more of a target than she already was. <em>She just can't stop threatening those who oppose her. Whoever they might actually be.</em></p><p>So many of the court of Leng Yi were invited to join the progress, those that didn't receive an invitation felt slighted. The whole of the court save the Elders and Choyko seemed to be lining up in the city square, packing their useless goods into carts they'd trail behind litters. A total of seventy-four nobles were to be accounted for, with four to ten attending servants each. It was to be the largest and longest progress in the history of Leng, or so they continued to preach as if it were official proclamation of the march.</p><p>The Empress' litter and cargo van were located near the front of the line, with half or more of the Imperial Guard surrounding her carriage like a bee hive, buzzing about and maintaining formation until the progress began. In her litter, Aegon and Akino would sit beside her, providing the last line of defense, or first for an errant bolt or arrow should they be ambushed. Tactically, Aegon did not like the idea one bit, but he had little say in anything, never mind in the eyes of the young Empress who denied council from the long standing magistrate. What right did he have to speak where Kaono could not?</p><p>Aegon rode Pal to the Empress' litter and hitched the horse so it could follow closely. As he dismounted, the bustling crowd of guards all around humming in the shadow of the city's walls, he heard a smooth familiar voice cut through the chaotic noise from behind him. "Now that is a fine specimen."</p><p>"He's teke teke, I'm told," Aegon said, admiring his horse.</p><p>"I wasn't talking about the animal, though he is beautiful too." He shot his glance up at her, two green eyes glowing back at him with an intriguing coy.</p><p>"It is nice to officially introduce myself. I am Aegon Velaryon, your Holiness. It is a pleasure to finally meet you," he said, bowing in the Westerosi custom he'd seen as a youth.</p><p>"You know who I am, as I know of you, Your Honor. Or is it your grace?"</p><p>"With those lips, call me what pleases you most."</p><p>"I'd say <em>mine</em>, but women unfortunately end up sharing men like you. I'm not one for sharing men. Men may share me, but that is a different tale."</p><p>"Where are my manners," he said in reply, shaking the smirk off his face. "How is it I can assist you, your Holiness?" <em>Why would she say, "your grace,"? Does she know of Sothoryos too?</em></p><p>"I was peaking out to ascertain the progress of our progress. Are we to leave soon? I'm much too bored stuck in this litter all to myself." She stood peaking out of the flowing curtains of her luxorious litter, dangling her long bare footed legs just off the cobbled road below. The rest of her was mostly hidden inside the curtain, but the gleaming skin of her legs still shone in the setting orange sun.</p><p>"I will go and see, your Holiness, but I'm afraid these good men may just ignore me. It's better you ask a more seasoned Guard."</p><p>"Do these men not respect you, ser?"</p><p>"They've spent their whole lives working toward what I achieved in days. They have an understandable spite against my circumstance. Nice fellows, though. The lot are all gentle and kind," he said with a smirk.</p><p>"Nothing you can't handle, I'm sure. Well, if you're no use out there, come join me in here. I am your assignment, aren't I?"</p><p>"Yes, Your Holiness. You word is my command."</p><p>"Think of this as more a request than a command. Would you join me, Aegon?"</p><p>
  <em>Is this some kind of trap? Royals, nobility, dieties, they all play games with thrones. What is this woman after? She acts as if we'd never met in the pool, until I'm finally alone with her. Kiku said not to talk about that night. Does she even remember? Is it even the same Khiana, now that she's ascended?</em>
</p><p>"That would be most agreeable, your Holiness."</p><p>"Call me Khiana. That <em>is </em>my name, Aegon. I allow you to relax the formalities of speech when it is just us two. Speaking of more than ourselves," she turned her gaze to acknowledge Hanse approaching atop his pale gelding.</p><p>"Your Holiness. Does this peasant disturb you?" He growled, his tone as deep as the creases in his furrowed brow.</p><p>"No, Hanse.<em> I</em> began our discussion. And Aegon is no peasant. He is of royal blood, like myself. You and your men will honor him as such or I will be disappointed in you and them. Is that understood, my sweet?"</p><p>"Yes Your Holiness. The devil is of royal blood."</p><p>She chuckled and smirked at Aegon, "A devil he may yet prove to be, but he has already foiled an attack by those responsible, saving the magistrate's life from certain death. He is the most qualified in our land to protect me. I know you wish the honor was yours, or another of your men's, but this man has been sent by my ancestors to help aid us in our quest. Do not further trouble him with your insults or chores. He is our most honored guest. Thank you, Hanse."</p><p>"Yes, Your Holiness," his gruff voice exhaled, glaring at Aegon as he said it. "Thank your ancestors and the Goddess above for this most crucial of small white devils."</p><p>"Watch it, Hanse. I will always have affection for the curt and cruel nature inside you, but you are mine. Your thoughts and heart are mine. Keep them as I like them, yes?"</p><p>"Yes, Your Holiness." Hanse said, submitting to his master.</p><p>"Good. Now, what brings you here other than to check on our newest Guard?" she asked, still cheerfully belligerent towards him.</p><p>"We are ready to depart, Your Holiness. Should we open the gate?"</p><p>"Yes. The sooner the better. Will you join me Aegon?" she asked, her dainty long arm stretched towards him.</p><p>He took her hand and replied, "I'd be delighted, Your Holiness." <em>Khiana, </em>he thought, but didn't say it. What made him want to was the envy of Hanse if he did. What kept him was the wishes of his Empress.</p><p>The progress continued and Khiana amused herself bantering with Aegon, and remarking on Akino's lack of all intelligent thought. She constantly teased him, speaking to him as beast masters speak to a bear, speaking more in tone than words, saying phrases that didn't match. "You're such a stupid man, now aren't you, Akino?" she'd say in a joyful praising tone. Or she'd ridicule him, smile at him, and continue with the jest, all to his own delightful and naïve grin.</p><p>"He speaks enough Malhada to hear most of what's said, but since being struck by a war hammer to the helm, he's not all there. In an instant, his instincts will kick in and dispatch any number of attackers, but even chewing his food can be too tough a task from time to time. He's the perfect shadow. Except he's tried to see me undressed for far too long and far too often," she said, back hand slapping his broad full chest. "Otherwise, he's my ideal protector. I just sometimes wish for better conversation."</p><p>"Is that all I am to you," Aegon asked, in jest, "<em>conversation? </em>Here, I thought you're talk of a fine specimen meant more and all you want are my words."</p><p>"I wouldn't go that far, ser. Your words aren't so profound as that, I fear. Though, some of them are acceptable enough. I'll continue to keep you near."</p><p>The young woman was full of vigor and life as it seemed politically she was full of vengeful fire. Her gregarious laugh filled the litter with such delight, Akino couldn't help from smiling so much he drooled, and her smile kept the litter luminously bright even into the early evening as the sun descended beneath the horizon, the bright orange glow in the pink litter, cooling to a soft purple in the twilight.</p><p>"I haven't laughed like this since the killings. I thank the both of you for some amusement in these trying times." She relaxed and reclined, her green silk robe clinging to her limber teak body as she relaxed herself into the pillows of the litter's seat. She reached her long dainty arm, gently brushing against Aegon's outer thigh, then twirled her fingertip across his skin gently. "All within my realm could use some amusement," she said, looking up and into Aegon with her glowing green eyes.</p><p>Aegon sat up straight in his seat, broadening his shoulders as if to look better to her Holiness. Her striking gaze turned him into a blossoming young boy again, nervous and bashful in front of stunning young maid. Quickly, however, he tried to bring sense back into his thoughts. She wasn't just any other maid in the Harbor, she was the ruler of the entirety of Leng. As she said, "From tip to tip." Did he even have the right to lay with her? Would he be treated like all the maids of Westeros that found themselves abed with Princes or Kings? Cast off as fast as they were found.</p><p>He tried to ignore her, but she started to wriggle deeper into her pillows, and lifted one of her legs at the knee, extending the bare skin of her shin and calf nearer to where his own legs were planted. Flushed, Aegon tried to direct the conversation elsewhere, "Would anyone like another fill of soku?" He hadn't begun to drink yet, the Empress already into her fourth cup, but he couldn't think of any other offering, other than the offering he was avoiding but very ready and willing to give.</p><p>Darkness had set upon them in the dense woods beyond the city limits of Leng Yi, following the Azure Road. The train had traveled for four or five hours passed the city walls, quickly leaving behind the small folk and their farms and making their way through the forests of Teehin. A small oil lamp was all that lit the litter, which was quite massive, comfortably fitting the three of them despite Akino being closer in size to an aurochs than an average man. Searching for something else to change the subject, Aegon asked Khiana, "Darkness has set in, your Holiness. What were your plans for the evening? Are we to stop and make camp or continue moving through the night?"</p><p>"What would you do, ser?"</p><p>Aegon knew what he would do, but at first thought it dangerous to make his opinion known. <em>But she did ask me, so why not tell her my opinion? </em>He said, "Tactically, this long train is an easy target. Stopping would only prove easier if an enemy chose to attack. I would keep moving, but as you serve your subjects, and most of the lot in this caravan are nobles with <em>needs</em>, you might consider resting the night this close to Leng Yi. The further South we go, the less likely we be able to even consider it. So, to placate to your constituents, tonight might be the best of any night we travel."</p><p>"Sound strategy, ser. I feel you are right in that we are a target, but as you say, we are closer or close enough to our homeland that we needn't fear these woods as we would further south. We will make camp for the night, though I will have guards patrolling the perimeter of the entire train until morning."</p><p>Aegon gently stepped to the front of the litter and stuck his head out to yell to the driver. "Her holiness will have us make camp for the night. Inform the drivers of this progress to find a suitable spot to set up and we will send the horsed guards to inform the rest behind us."</p><p>"Very good, Your Honor," the driver said.</p><p>They stopped minutes later. Akino seemed surprised, and readied his stance in his seat, as if he wasn't present for the discussions pertaining to their plans. Ordering and leading now taken care of, Aegon worried what mood he would return to find his beautiful Empress in now. <em>Hopefully she's not as . . . vigorous.</em></p><p>She was. Or at least she looked to be. As Aegon climbed in and out of the litter to inform the carts and guards around him where to go and what to do, she had apparently changed garments into an even sheerer silk, which was meant to be white, but appeared on her body as clear as Myrish glass. "Are you done with your duties, ser?" the only opaque clothing covering her nakedness the gleaming brown amulet on the base of her neck.</p><p>Aegon stumbled to reply back with more flirtatious wit, both affected by her beauty and near nudity, and still hesitant to act on his lustful urges. "How did you change into that without Akino seeing?"</p><p>"I said he's tried to see me undress for so long, I never said he hadn't yet seen me. Though he only braves a peek now after I've scolded him as oft as I have. Come, Aegon. Sit with me," she patted the open space on the cushioned seat next to her, her emerald eyes never breaking her gaze into Aegon's amethysts. "Your eyes are beautiful," she said in an exhale.</p><p>
  <em>As are yours. As were hers. Am I balking at being with the beauty for sense or for Nahknani? Would she want me to be miserable?</em>
</p><p>Before he could answer her, or respond with anything other than his awkward gawking, a small figure burst into the litter, startling all but Akino. "Aegon! What blasphemy is this?"</p><p>"Kiku!" Khiana almost shouted, covering her waist and chest with her hands despite the sheer robe already there.</p><p>"It is upon pain of death to deflower the Goddess Among Men. This woman is no longer another for you to spoil," she said, knowing damn well Aegon was not the man her accusation painted him to be. "Is he distracting you, Your Holiness, from focusing on the importance of this progress? I apologize for his actions, however forward. He is supposed to be mine to cull into proper obedience, and I must admit he is a hard one to tame."</p><p>"Hard indeed. Though your man here has behaved himself almost too well. I might have the sense to think he enjoys men since he has yet to even place a finger on my skin."</p><p>"As much as is showing, a wonder in that."</p><p>"Careful madame, I am the Goddess Among Men, which includes women as well. I will run this land as I see fit, and any adjustments to Divine Rule can be made if need be. As a maid and unwed, it is of the most import for me to find a suitable mate to help rule. I believe I can begin my courtship now, with all manner of suitors. This one is of noble Westerosi lineage. He may prove to be suitable just yet."</p><p>Kiku's tone was a mixture of jealousy and concern. He did not truly think the old hag felt honest emotions for him, but something made her both explicitly explain the laws of precedent for this situation, and try to shade Aegon as a less suitable match. <em>What is she playing at?</em></p><p>"Courting involves more conversation and less visualization, Your Holiness. Even the most honorable of men would crumble to your whims in a wardrobe like that. There's even many a maid that would fall under your spell."</p><p>"The old guard presumes too much in all your lessons, Kiku Ma. Though you speak from good intent, your presence among this progress is less and less necessary the more our purple eyed prince learns of our tongue. If you feel your place is to tell of me what I can and cannot do, I will correct that thinking by showing you the proper place of a retired informant, brothel madame, and otherwise used up asset to this governance. For the love I have of you, and the respect I have of your daughter who serves me, understand my seriousness in this. I've had just enough of the elders who've caused this mess we find ourselves in counseling me on the decisions it will take to correct it." She stood up, allowing the sheer robe to open, fully exposing her full breasts, flat mid-section, and the top of the hair of her sex.</p><p>"My apologies, Your Holiness. As you've said, I'm only speaking with your intentions in mind. Do what you will with him, but know he's much more useful alive. The Guard will kill him if they know. And Choyko. I don't even want to begin to consider what that man would do if he knew of even this much."</p><p>"Thank you again, Lady Ma. But that will be all, thank you."</p><p>"Where shall I go, my Empress."</p><p>"Where you wish. Just not here. Take Akino with you. Give him this when you reach where you'll stay." She handed Kiku a honey biscuit from their food wares and shooed her and Akino off as if children to play as the adults conferred. <em>Kiku was trying to warn me. Is this woman trying to kill me off with her lusty sexy body? </em>In jest he answered himself, <em>I'd </em>probably<em> still fall into it and it might just be worth it.</em></p><p>"If you mean to kill me," he said smiling, "there are much worse ways to die."</p><p>"You heard what I said. I am only courting a potential suitor. You are of Westerosi Noble birth, are you not?"</p><p>"I am, but I am not within good standing of either side of my family. My head is worth more than my name at this point, though soon I feel as if I will be all but forgotten."</p><p>"What about your exploits in the Green Continent? Surely The Dragon King of Sothoryos has enough royal blood to court, no?"</p><p>"So you've heard the stories then?"</p><p>"I've heard many stories. I've heard stories since I was a child, learning about life through tales of hares and weasels. What I heard of Sothoryos is no less than glory! If half of what is said about the Valyrian, as you're known in the ports of Leng, is true, then you're everything this country needs." She bit her lip and looked him up and down, "and everything a woman could ever want."</p><p>A commotion outside the litter startled Aegon to attention. "Sit here. Let me see what is outside."</p><p>Aegon peaked his head out to see what made the rustling noise so loud he heard it through the titillating praise from his Empress. The forest was pitch black, only lit by torches placed between each of the carts at the edge of the road to add light. Aegon thought it better they stay hidden in the dark without light or fires, but nobles needed comforts. There was little he could do to sway them once they were informed they'd stop for the night. "What if I have to make water? How will I keep from breaking my legs if I cannot see the carriage steps or the forest floor?" one asked.</p><p>"Just slip your dick out the curtain and go, for all I care. Just try not to wet the horses," Aegon replied. To that, he was formally reprimanded by Hanse, who relished in the chance to strike him.</p><p>A guard stood near each torch, and every quarter hour the guards moved down, eventually cycling through and around the entire caravan by the morning. Most of the guards who were assigned overnight duty were novices, as the task was seen as punishment more than an important shift, and none of the guards looked to be seriously engaged in their work, standing lazily and half asleep, sometimes leaning against the torch next to them.</p><p>Aegon quietly called to the nearest guard, "Did you hear that?"</p><p>A young Yit man, no more than twenty, responded, "I heard something, but it came from the other side."</p><p>Aegon jumped out of the litter, patted Pal on his shoulders, who was anxious and stepping in place. "Easy, boy. Easy. I'll see what's the matter."</p><p>He slipped between the litter and the baggage cart behind it, to see the opposite side of torches and guards. To the far right of him, another young Yit man was hunched over, sitting at the base of the torch stick with his back leaning against it and his head bent over in slumber. Almost directly in front, another guard, this one a young Leg, stood vigilant, his staff firmly clutched in his two hands.</p><p>"Did you hear the sound too?" Aegon asked the Leg, approaching him with his right hand on the hilt of the dirk.</p><p>"Yes. Something's out there. He went to take a piss over there, and the torch went out," the young Leg pointed to where a torch would be to the far left, toward the front of the train, but now there was none.</p><p>"How long ago was that?"</p><p>"I don't know. Too long."</p><p>"Fetch Hanse, tell him what's happened. I have to stay here near the Empress. I'll man your post until you return. Hurry. It could just be a tiger, but this is how an ambush would start. Go."</p><p>The young man ran back four or five carts to where Hanse would be sound asleep. If the guard came back from his piss, Hanse would be furious, but the life of the Empress was more important than the mood of an old pit fighter.</p><p>Aegon found a rock at his feet big enough to travel and small enough not to be painful and heaved it at the sleeping guard to his right. It hit him on the helm, pinging, and giving a good start from his sleeping brother in arms. "Get up, stupid. Ready yourself. Alert the man next to you. It may be nothing, but be ready to defend yourself."</p><p>The fiery look of disdain for waking him shifted quickly into a concerned gasp, as the young Yit popped off the ground and fumbled for his weapon. Most of the novice guards had staffs, but this one had a thin pointed long sword, fashioned in the YiTi style seen in Leng. He turned to confer with the guard next to him, alerted him, and shot back to facing the black forest, readied in a balanced stance.</p><p>"Tell him to tell the next man and so on."</p><p>"What?" he called back, either still half asleep or pants soiling scared of actual combat.</p><p>"Tell the guard to tell the next guard and so-on," Aegon said, until a shadow flashed through the brush in front of him, and simultaneously downed the torch and silenced the young guard. <em>Oh, shit!</em></p><p>The apparition moved faster than he could ever realize, and all Aegon could make out of the attacker was the approximate low shape that looked much larger than a man.</p><p>The brush rustled in the newly darkened black where the guard stood, and the slight rustle of grasses seemed to sound away deeper into the forest. Aegon pulled both twin dragon blades from his hip, and readied his own stance, standing in the heat of the flaming torch next to him.</p><p>"What is it?" a smooth sultry voice asked from behind him.</p><p>Without turning his gaze away, he responded, "Get back inside the litter, now." He had no time for more games, and a very real threat was upon them. <em>That's how they got the other guy. I'll be caught dead where I stand if I turn to look.</em></p><p>He heard no more from the Empress, who he imagined didn't take kindly to the order. <em>Or maybe that's what she wants.</em> He shook his head, clearing his focus of thoughts of beauty and lust, returning his stare into the deep darkness that surrounded him. The wind was all that rustled the grass now.</p><p>The gentle breeze carried from front to back, eerily slow, as if it was being pushed deliberately and not naturally. A thin mist flowed behind it, dropping the temperature cooler, and Aegon turned to determine if it came from a source. It felt unnatural.</p><p>A single shriek sounded from the opposite side of the caravan behind him, but clearly out of sight. Other guards noticed, and Aegon began to hear them decide what to do, more mumbles than audible sentences, but in the relative silent of the night, even their footsteps on the road echoed across the carts.</p><p>Bushes moved in front of him, just out of the glow of the torch, and as quick as he heard the sounds, they were gone. Silent and still.</p><p>"Can you hear me?" Aegon yelled, his back to the caravan, his eyes on the dark forest, and his voice projected into the sky to carry to the other side.</p><p>"A bit," a voice responded.</p><p>"What is the status on your side," Aegon yelled, his eyes peering into every slight rustle in the visible brush, his knuckles white, gripping his twin blades.</p><p>"We have a man missing, I saw him taken into the trees."</p><p>"Did you see what it was?"</p><p>"No."</p><p>"Where's Hanse? Was he woken?"</p><p>A different man replied, but he wasn't loud enough to hear.</p><p>Aegon turned to ask, "What, speak up!" as the mist around him thickened. He turned back to the forest. A red loose robe instantly appeared, cutting through the mist like a ghost. Before Aegon could swing his swords, a puff of white powder burst from the air out of the hooded man's mouth, freezing Aegon instantly. The robe stood in the light of the torch mumbling a low humming chant as the cloud of powder slowly burned into Aegon's unblinking eyes. He removed his hood, revealing a black face smeared with a thick white grease in the shape and look of a skull. The man smiled, his bright white teeth stretching from cheek to cheek. "Just stay. Stillness Smoke will wear off in time." Then, he stepped past Aegon, who was frozen in place, his right sword arm stuck coiled for a backhand slash, and his left sword arm coiled for a trailing forehand.</p><p>As the man walked past him, his smooth black head sprouting from the loose red robe from a long thin neck, Aegon tried to turn his head to follow him. All he could turn were his eyes until he was quickly out of view, and behind him, walking towards the Empress.</p><p>Another hooded man emerged from the brush and looked as though he meant to follow him, slightly jogging to catch up. This man was much larger, his frame filling out the robe, where the painted skull looked naught but skin and bone. His face only had white streaks under his eyes and one crude circle on his forehead. "Puny guard," he said, pushing past Aegon and knocking him back, still frozen, into the torch's flame. "Cook for me. Maybe I'll eat," he said as the leather of Aegon's shoulder padding starting to melt in the heat, caressing the skin of his arm. He clacked a sound with his throat, chuckled, and stepped past Aegon to catch up with the painted skull.</p><p>The flames soothed his fear, as he felt his eyes blink first, which was a relief he repeated four or five times until they no longer burned from the air. Then his wrists flinched, holding the weight of the swords up. Then, he lifted his feet, his whole body now able to move, turned, and charged.</p><p>He saw the larger man first, his frame likely hiding the shape of the painted skull in front of him. He stretched both swords out and cocked his wrists so the tips of each blade would pierce his back and slant inwards, where his lungs were. The impact happened in a flash, as within a heartbeat, the blades slid in, he shredded out, and most of the larger man's torso opened to a splash of dark crimson in the glow of the torch behind him. The man fell with a grunt and a thud, as he hacked down once more with his right, severing the falling man's spine at the base of the back of his neck, slicing through a braided pony tail, skin, and bone without so much as a slight drag. <em>This is fine steel.</em></p><p>The painted skull turned, shocked, and lifted his knobby hands to puff another cloud of powder at him. Aegon ducked and rolled to his right, closer to the painted skull, planting his feet and bounding up to a crouch. He vaulted his right sword at the man, slicing through the robe, and pinning the skull above his shoulder to the litter. The Empress' litter. He heard Khiana gasp as the sword pierced through the litter's wooden wall.</p><p>"Stay inside, Your Holiness," he called, as he drew the dirk with his right hand. The skull pulled at the robe, trying to free it from the sword, as Aegon bounced up to his feet and stepped forward to charge him.</p><p>His painted face panicked, worrying the robe and looking back and forth between it and Aegon. His eyes widened, his mouth mumbled, and his hands seemed to shake as he yanked at the pinned fabric. As Aegon moved closer, the painted skull released his robe, reached for a horn and blew it. Aegon reached him, and cut the horn away, his left hand still gripped around its base as it fell to the dirt road below. With his right hand, gripping the dirk hilt, Aegon crunched a punishing punch to the painted cheekbone of the skull's face, and his thin, black, sickly looking body fell limp in the hanging robe, still pinned to the litter.</p><p>Quickly, Aegon pried the dragon blade free, the painted skull plopping onto the road as he did. He sheathed the dirk and looked behind him. <em>Of course, there's more.</em></p><p>Four red robed bodies crept out from the tall dark brush and slowly stepped into full view of the torch light. "How is it on your side, boys?" Aegon yelled, hoping his new brothers in arms could help. "Boys?" All Aegon could hear was Pal whinnying and neighing.</p><p>"Wake up! Everyone, wake the fuck up!" He began yelling, knowing he'd have to defend the Empress' litter as the priority before running to get help. He screamed to the lead carts in front of him, hoping, at a minimum, the first few carts could flee and bring the Empress to safety. Aegon intended to protect the entire caravan, but seemingly without any assistance coming, he'd have to focus on the Empress' life first.</p><p>The four hooded men stood all above seven feet, towering over Aegon even from steps away. They weren't as thick as the first he cut, but their extremely long limbs gave them all reach on him. Luckily, they were only carrying clubs.</p><p>They synchronized their attack, yelling a simple battle cry and converging on him with the clubs ready to swing. Aegon slid to his right, holding both twin blades coiled against his right shoulder, as he swung his left back handed and his right forehanded across the body of the nearest attacker and around, pivoting on the sole of his left foot, catching the swing from the attacker that started on his right after he spun around and nicked two or three of them, with the left sword up and diagonally across his body. With the right sword, his right arm poked underneath his left arm and into the chest of the living man to his left, sinking deep. Then, he pulled the plunged sword out with a backhand slash that cut through the middle attacker's midsection and slashed across the chest of the man on the right he had blocked. Each of the four was either dead or too bloodied to continue, so he turned and jumped into the litter.</p><p>"Are you all right?" he asked her, his heart pumping so hard he could feel it in his forehead.</p><p>"Are you? You're covered in blood."</p><p>"It's not mine."</p><p>A hand reached into the litter from the opposite side. With a flick of his right wrist, the other man lost his, and the hand fell to the carpeted floor of the litter, the stump spraying into it for a moment before the man yelped and backed away. "Take this and don't fucking lose it!" he yelled to Khiana, tossing her the dirk. "Don't fucking lose that," he yelled as he jumped out of the litter to follow the handless attacker to finish him off.</p><p>He landed, seeing more men than he could immediately count. "Where the fuck is everyone! Wake the fuck up! Get these carts moving!" He yelled. Afterwards, it finally sounded as if someone was rustling awake in the cart in front of the Empress'. "Get up! Get up! Get up! We're under attack! Get this fucking train moving!"</p><p>The handless man receded back into the small crowd of red robes, as another jumbled group stepped forward to take his place.</p><p>Aegon burst at them, outnumbering him but holding clubs, and he slashed, ripping through red robes like a tailor, his black twin dragon blades slicing through the flowing linen like he was cutting through air, spraying fine crimson mists with every back and forth cut the twirling blades delivered.</p><p>The crowd around him began to retreat, as the more he cut through, the more each individual man thought of the value of his own life. Aegon quickly sheathed his left blade and reached for the nearby torch. He pressed the flames against his face and roared to the hesitant attackers, "Who else dare try the Dragon! Whose blood will flow next?!"</p><p>Shadowed faces spread wide in fear, as they stepped away enough for Aegon to dart back to the litter, jumping into it to inspect the other side of the train. The Empress was crouched down, peeking out the bottom of the window opening to spectate the attack. She looked equally enthralled and terrified.</p><p>Aegon peered out of the other side. The painted skull's limp body had moved, and the forest was silent otherwise. <em>Where the fuck did he go?</em></p><p>"Aegon, behind you!" screamed the normally smooth voice, now saturated with horror.</p><p>He turned. The painted skull's face lit up with hatred and rage, his wide white eyes burning, as his remaining hand forced a dull blade through his collarbone, barely sinking, but cracking bone and cutting skin. Aegon retaliated with an upward thrust from his right sword, lifting the thin man up so it looked as though the flowing robe was floating. He gasped airlessly, as his body slid down the blade to the handle, entering just below his ribcage and exiting out his back like the fin of a shark. His open mouth sucked for air that would never come, and with his last bit of strength, he dug the stunted blade deeper into Aegon, far enough that the tip pierced into and out of the bottom of his neck.</p><p>When the painted skull's eyes glossed over, and his body fell limp again, the blood rage passed from Aegon, and he too fell limp to the floor, his own breaths now harder and harder to hold.</p><p>"Aegon!" the Empress shrieked; her concern seemingly genuine. She fell to her knees, helpless to speak or act on anything other than the shocking grief that corrupted her glowing green eyes, as she seemed resigned to witnessing his death up close.</p><p>"Fire," Aegon managed to let out softly, pointing to the torch he planted in the ground just outside of the litter. "Get, fire" he breathed.</p><p>She listened. Her face forcing a focus and her eyes squinted in purpose. She grabbed the torch and brought it to him.</p><p>"Burn here," he said, his words not much more than a whisper.</p><p>"Umm. Uh. Will it hurt?" she said, hesitating, and beginning to lose composure.</p><p>"Just hold it here," he pressed onto where the blood was seeping and pooling in the divot above his breast plate.</p><p>She did. The fire first snatched his breath away, then cooled his breathing and began to seal the wound. He could feel his airway opening, and could taste the sweet fresh breaths as they came gulping in. He felt his head lighten, and his body almost fainted, but he forced an arm down to the litter floor to prop himself up, as they had not yet escaped from this onslaught.</p><p>He coughed, and choked on left over blood, ejecting it from his breathing onto the already bloodstained carpet. Then, he was able to speak. "You can remove the flames now, love." He smiled, though he could still taste iron in his mouth, and his teeth were probably horribly discolored by his own blood.</p><p>Khiana's face paled as her hands began to tremble wildly. "What is this? How could this be?" She looked at where he was laying and stared into the space as he rose from the ground and pulled his right sword from the body of the painted skull.</p><p>"Don't think about it too hard. Let's just get the fuck away from here."</p><p>"Right," she said, almost asking.</p><p>He peered out the opposite side of the litter, more red hooded men were coming from the brush, but by now, the Imperial Guard was awake and responding. He looked back out the other side, there was no further commotion, so he stepped out of the litter to see if there was anything else happening further down the train. Khiana screeched from inside.</p><p>Aegon leapt back into the litter, seeing the crawling body of the painted skull, creeping to Khiana who was on the floor, almost pinned below his stump of a left arm as his right hand reached for her amulet. Aegon shortened his right arm, the hand falling on to Khiana and rolling off, the stump spurting a burst of blood as his heart beat its last beats. As Aegon coiled to swing across and through his neck, the almost decapitated head spoke its last sentence. "She's not who she seems to be!"</p><p>The sword swung through, whirring in the air, and as it finished its arc, his painted skull rolled to the floor.</p><p>
  <strong>A/N</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>First of all, you're welcome. Though the stats on my stories appear otherwise, my favorite scenes involve skirmishes like this one. As always, thank you for reading. Please know that it is among the greatest thrills of mine to share these pages with you. Please comment. I'm asking so nicely and desperately want to hear from my audience. Also, feel free to pm if you so desire. I'm always excited to talk ASOIAF or anything writing.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>More to come. Let me know what you're excited to see in Leng or think is next for our Drahkness Kahn. Thanks!</strong>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Let me know what you think about the Red Robes, The Painted Skull, and the overall flow of the fight scene.</p><p>I really gravitate and anchor my work around scenes like this and hope to capture what I love in this world in my own recreation of some of it.</p><p>Thanks, as always, for reading this mostly original work.  I hope you are pleased with your decision to try something so different in our small nerdy world.</p><p>OC, OS (setting), OP (plot), totally original.  It's definitely for me.  I hope it's for you too.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>A/N</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Once again, as always, thank you so much for reading. Please tell me what you think in the comments and follow and fave if you like the story so far. I feed of your feedback and do this for you as much as myself. I look forward to reading what you have to say. Now, without further adieu, Enjoy!</strong>
</p><p>12</p><p>"And what of our losses," her Holiness asked Hanse, whom Aegon offered to ride atop Pal, still uninterested in returning to the blood-soaked litter. It was early morning. dawn approached on the east horizon, and the thin fingers of the sun's light began to stretch through the canopy of the forest, painting orange lines in the floor below. A welcome warmth after a dark and frightening evening.</p><p>"We did not lose many or much. Three guards and a sack of barley cut open during the fighting. If it wasn't for your devil it could have been worse, but once the guard was awake and armed, having less than half our numbers, we overwhelmed them and forced them to retreat, fading away into the forest," he replied, standing at the base of a pile of red robed bodies, numbering close to thirty in total.</p><p>"Though it is sad to lose even one of my precious guard, I am glad we have prevailed in this our first test. We will call it the Battle of the Azure Road. Send word home of our troubles and triumph, and send a crier with flair to make it into song. Let those of Leng remember this day as the day their Empress stood tall in the face of danger, and quelled those tasked with her demise." She shook her hair in pride of herself as her face smiled, and her grip on the horse's reigns tightened. Then she broke her regal stance and looked down at Aegon with an air of doubt, "Is that too much?"</p><p>"I think the city should know, your Holiness. I think all the land should know as well. It may prevent future attempts," Aegon concluded.</p><p>"Very well, Your Honor," she said, nodding to Aegon in deference. "And Hanse, let it be known the Dragon Man was the hero of the day. He is Dat Kumo come again."</p><p>"Your Holiness, shouldn't we praise the whole of the Imperial Guard, for Leng. If we raise this outsider, what will the people think?" Hanse asked, holding back his disgust for her wishes.</p><p>"They will think that I am safe. They know of the Valyrian of Sothoryos. This is that same man. On <em>our </em>side."</p><p>"As you wish," he concluded, nodding to both the horsed Diety and Aegon, the Hero of the Battle of the Azure Road and returning to the disposal of the bodies of the slain.</p><p>"Aegon, lead me on this fine animal over to where he can graze. There is something I must ask of you."</p><p>"Yes, Your Holiness."</p><p>Out of earshot from the other guard, and just off the road in a serene patch of grasses, the Empress ordered them stop, and to help her out of Pal's saddle. Back in her day robe, emerald green like her eyes, she swung her long smooth leg around the horse's back and sat facing him, waiting for his hand. He reached out, accepting the dainty gemmed grip as she stepped down, gently falling into him.</p><p>Aegon caught his Empress and locked eyes, inches away from her face. She nudged her nose against his and whispered, "Thank you," in his ears. The hairs on his arms tingled and stood, and the cool feeling, like he was on fire, circled through his veins.</p><p>"No need, your Holiness," he said, stepping back and allowing her to regain her balance, alone. He wasn't avoiding her affections as much as he was still wary of their flirtation going any further. <em>It was the same for Nahknani in the beginning, for slightly different reasons. </em>"It is an honor and my duty to keep you safe."</p><p>"I am frightened, Aegon. Still. The only thing keeping my hands from trembling is having you by my side." Her strong and aggressive veneer, the one she wore atop dais and podiums in speeches, was cracked and laid her novice naive heart bare. He could see the wounds in her mind when she forced a smile, still imagining the painted skull's arm stumps and severed head.</p><p>"To comfort you, I'd say there's nothing to be frightened of. But that is not the truth as you know. This course is ambitious and bold, but it is just as arrogant and dangerous as well. I cannot speak to what you should do in your position, but the stance you've taken has its risks. And this progress only exacerbates those risks with opportunities to our foe."</p><p>"If you ruled, what would you do?"</p><p>"I don't know," he thought aloud. "No one has ever asked me how to rule. The only boats I've ruled as just a mere captain were either sunk or stolen," he said, thinking of <em>Strong Winds </em>and <em>Alroh.</em></p><p>"You have royal blood, don't you? Do you think it matters who you are born as in how it applies to the control of a nation?"</p><p>"Most rulers are proper cunts, to be honest, love," he said, so quickly he couldn't even sensor his sailor's speech. He worried over what her reaction would be until he saw it. Her eyes stretched closed as her mouth burst with laughter.</p><p>"Yes, I suppose most are. Excluding current company, of course. I think you would make a fine ruler, Aegon Velaryon, First of His Name."</p><p><em>I preferred when I was Drahkness Kahn. </em>"A name and title I cannot claim. I am really just no one, but who's to say?"</p><p>"I am. I am to say what you do and what you're called. At least in my land, anyway." She reached out and took both his hands with hers, staring deep into his eyes. Her glowing green orbs glowed as she spoke deep into his soul, and his gaze was fixed, almost unnaturally on her beauty, her tone, and the wavering strength and vulnerability of each word. "And what needs be done is to root out this problem now. Hanse has captured one of the men alive. Further questioning should lead us to where these heathens make camp. Go with him. Find those that mean to kill me and deliver a blow to our foes that will prevent all other attempts on my life. For the sake of Leng." She pulled him into her, her long arms wrapped around his shoulders and she pulled his face into her. She was taller than Aegon, but not as tall as most Legs, only an inch or two higher as opposed to a foot, and as his face nestled into her embrace and slid into her neck and ear, her smell intoxicated him with a deep devotion to her he didn't know he felt.</p><p>His own arms wrapped around her waist, tightening his hold to comfort her. She was scared. She was a girl in need of saving, he thought. Her tough talk gave her some comfort, but her true cure would be the word from her guard that the rest of the ban of red hooded mongrels had been put down, and the intense heat in his heart spoke to how drunk he was with everything about his Empress.</p><p>"I will do this for you, Your Holiness," he replied, almost unintentionally. His faculties seemed out of his hands.</p><p>"Call me Khiana when it is just us two." She backed her head out of the embrace, as to lock eyes with him once again, hers still glowing. Emerald swirls orbiting the black of her eye.</p><p>"For you, Khiana." The words left his lips as a solemn promise. He felt light headed and calm.</p><p>She leaned into him, planting a soft kiss on his lips. "Now, go, ser. Do your duty for your Empress." She smiled as if she had already conquered her foe.</p><p>He didn't remember the jungles of Sothoryos to be as muddy. Except for that one time it rained almost two days, and he saved a drowning girl. <em>Nahknani.</em></p><p>Hanse had already ascertained the location of the attackers' camp from the captive by the time Aegon made it to the officers' cart. He felt drunk, almost woozy, attributing it to the loss of blood and the lack of sleep. His superior already assembled a band of the Imperial Guard to take into the forest and quell the attackers once and for all. And now, he was following the bear of a man, Hanse, through the deepest swamp he had ever walked through, and the only thoughts he had were of the two women haunting his heart.</p><p><em>What happened back there? </em>He thought, reminiscing about his second kiss with the Goddess Among Men. <em>Her beauty has me under a spell. For those moments, I couldn't even think of you, my love.</em></p><p>Even in the pool, the tall dark beautiful woman, fully nude and approaching, couldn't completely erase Nahknani from his thoughts. He compared their kiss, their bodies, and kept hearing Khiana's words, "Did she wish for you to be miserable?" He initially backed away, citing Nahknani as the reason.</p><p>Moments before he arrived at the cart, he felt floating in the sea of Khiana's mesmerizing green eyes, love drunk and clueless to anything other than her whim. It was as if her presence helped ease the pain in his heart of <em>her</em>. He didn't know if that was healing or harmful.</p><p>"What did this man say of why they attacked?" Aegon asked Hanse, struggling to keep his boots from getting sucked off of his feet and into the thick muck below.</p><p>"What of it, devil. Your pale skin is as pallid as your sorry attempts at winning her Holiness' favor. I see through your charm and beauty. You want her for you own, and to control our country for yourself."</p><p>"I mean to do nothing but protect her, Your Honor. I'm no plotter or serpent. I attack from the front. If I wish to be near her Holiness, it is for the same reason that all men do."</p><p>"Well keep your pale hands off of her holy boddess. She is our Goddess, our ruler, and our heart. She is no mere toy to play with." Hanse clearly had a deep affection for Khiana, almost fatherly.</p><p>"You've served Khiana for some time now?"</p><p>"Yes. Since she was born to this world, I have shared the responsibility with that oaf Akino. We are the biggest and strongest of the Imperial Guard, and Khissara trusted us with her most valued treasure. I would have given my life for Khissara, but I was not in the palace the night she was killed. I was with Khiana in the temple. She was preparing for her lessons the next day." His head sunk as he finished.</p><p>"I wish you were there. You would have saved her to be sure," Aegon said, flattering the enormous guard as to win some favor.</p><p>"I have no need of your false encouragement. What's done is done. Khiana is Empress now. Shut up and save your breath. The journey will not be short and your presence is painful enough without your voice constantly grating my ears."</p><p>"Just one more question, Your Honor."</p><p>"If I answer will you shut the fuck up for the rest of this walk through Leng's asshole?"</p><p>"If your answer is more than a simple yes or no, I will stop asking you questions, Your Honor."</p><p>"Fine. Ask me."</p><p>"Have you noticed a change in her since before. Have you noticed her to be different than she was before Shinsou's murder?"</p><p>"She has a different air about her, which is to be expected of a Goddess. She has grown is all. The young girl has become fiercer than I could have ever imagined. She was more bookish as a wee one, even still not that long ago. Since her ascension, she's grown to be both fierce <em>and </em>cunning. Now close your mouth or I'll drown you in mud and take whatever fate Khiana delivers willingly."</p><p>Each arduous step seemed harder than the last, as mud suction became as incredible a foe as the animated near skeleton of a man the previous night proved to be. He still wasn't sure what or who the painted skull could have been, but all of the attackers looked to be Leg, another sign of the same sinister plot.</p><p>Broad tapered leaves hung down from thick smooth branches, as the dense growth of the trees thickened when they finally trudged out of the swampy marsh. Towards the edge of the muck, roots and branches began provide solid footing, and as his soaked feet and ankles emerged from the enveloping brown, he breathed a sigh of relief audible to Hanse.</p><p>"I told you to stay quiet."</p><p>"You told me not to speak. I breathed is all."</p><p>"I'd prefer if you didn't."</p><p>The next leg of their journey was less arduous, but more difficult, as Hanse and the man he trusted to navigate through the dense wood seemed turned around at least a time or two. Aegon recognized the same tree twice, from different angles, and it wasn't until another member of the guard spoke up that the two leaders decided to take heed of another's navigational skills and progress closer to where the settlement was rumored to be located.</p><p>Aegon didn't know the particulars. He had never even seen a captive, but the information they were given described a valley between two hills where a stream of fresh water ran to a small pool. Around the pool, the attackers made camp, and that was where he and his fellow brothers in arms would root out the threat against their beloved Empress. <em>His </em>beloved Empress.</p><p>Small monkeys with ringed tails spied on them from the canopy, as the group of no more than twenty of his brethren forged on, three men ahead of the navigator hacking away at dense brush with their long swords and short wide blades specifically forged for cutting through the jungle. He tried to fall back in formation, out of earshot of Hanse, and among the remaining sullen members of the guard.</p><p>He slowed until he was flanked by two Yit descendant guards, each of which looked almost identical to each other. Aegon asked them just above a whisper, with a jestful smile, "You two brothers? You look almost twins."</p><p>"All Yit look the same to a white devil," one responded, keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead as to not involve themselves with upjumped outsider to their ranks.</p><p>The other, more composed and reserved, turned to him and gently replied, "He is no more kin to me than yourself, ser."</p><p>"Right," Aegon said, uncomfortable with how to progress the conversation. The man seemed as agreeable to him as anyone had been on the Guard, and was almost taken aback at his lack of disdain. "I don't believe we've met. I am Aegon Velaryon."</p><p>"I'm Tig Kumau. Well met."</p><p>"Well met, Tig."</p><p>He walked near the men in the back for some time before even considering beginning another conversation. Aegon wanted to know more, but there was not much else he could casually bring up without some kind of prompt or other context. Questions he had ranged from understanding who the Empress was as a princess, to understanding each's reason for joining the guard. But really, all Aegon wanted to do was pass the time, as silence forced contemplation, and without sleep, his mind almost hurt to think further.</p><p>Before he could figure out his own question, Tig asked one first, "Is it true that you breathe fire?"</p><p>Aegon chuckled. <em>She thought that. </em>"No. It is not true. Why?"</p><p>"Some of the men say you are the Dragon Man because you breathe fire and have scales beneath your skin. I see there's no scales, but I've seen stranger things than a man breathe fire. Hells, I seen a street performer do it in the city square a time or two," Tig replied, shrugging, keeping speed with the walking party. "How did you kill so many so quickly? In your lands, are you some kind of great warrior?"</p><p>"Where I'm from, I'm just another common man. Where I've gone, they know me by my deeds."</p><p>"And what of these deeds?"</p><p>"I am not one to announce my deeds and victories. Just know that I still stand where others have fallen. In the end, that is all that matters."</p><p>"If I were you, I'd tell of my deeds with my own two lips rather than let all others tell of your deeds for you with theirs. I've heard that you are the King of Sothoryos, and I've heard you're a raper from the Wall of Westeros deserting your life sentence. Is it true there is a thousand-foot wall of Rapers that protect your realm from the cold winters? They say all get raped in Westeros if you stay long enough."</p><p>"The Wall is of Ice, not rapers. Though sometimes criminals are sent to protect the wall as punishment. Some of those men are rapers."</p><p>"That makes more sense. Though, I kind of like the idea of all those terrible men standing on top of each other, half naked and freezing."</p><p>"Yeah," Aegon thought, imagining a seven-hundred foot high mound of the dead bodies of rapists. "That is both amusing and equally horrifying to consider."</p><p>"So are you a raper?"</p><p>"No. Never."</p><p>"Then what deeds do you speak? Good deeds? Bad deeds? They say you killed four men in Leng Ma just for looking at you."</p><p>"They attacked me first. I was drunk and I think they meant to mug me."</p><p>"Did you kill them?"</p><p>"All but one. The magistrate later did for lying."</p><p>"Do you even know how many men you've killed in your lifetime?"</p><p><em>I don't even remember how many I killed last night. </em>"No. I try not to."</p><p>"I've killed just the one, and that man haunts me 'til this day."</p><p>Aegon quickly remembered his first. A member of the Captain's crew when he was still just a lad in the kitchen. The man cornered him, looking for some inappropriate amusement, undoing his breeches. Aegon found a cleaver and sunk it into the man's head as he bent over to pull them down. Aegon never lost any sleep over it.</p><p>"It only gets easier," Aegon admitted as he propelled his body over a fallen trunk.</p><p>"I guess you'd know. You've probably killed so many you enjoy it by now."</p><p>Aegon couldn't disagree.</p><p>After some time, they reached a clearing. Plumes of wide smoke rose from the canopy of the forest in the distance, and Hanse held up his bulky fist above his head as to signal to his men. Though Aegon was not privy to their meaning, he signaled gestures and then pointed towards the smoke. In response, the men around him fanned out as they walked toward the assumed encampment.</p><p>"What does that mean?" Aegon asked Tig.</p><p>"We are to split into two groups and flank the camp from each side."</p><p>"Is that the devil's voice I hear in my ears?" Hanse whispered in the tone of an angered reprimand.</p><p>"I was unaware of your signals' meaning. I will remain quiet."</p><p>"You will remain with me. If you threaten to endanger the success of this mission, I will knock you forcefully asleep and deliver you back to the Empress in whatever condition you end up. Here," he whispered, pointing beside him. "Now!" he screamed, his muffled voice swelling the veins in his neck and head.</p><p>Aegon begrudgingly obliged, hanging his head, almost stomping like a pouting child. It really made no matter, but the ungrateful way his superior rewarded his heroism of the previous night, with childlike oversight and unjustified malice offended him more than it angered him. <em>It would be your head rolling as a sacrifice to your failure if I hadn't kept the Empress safe. I woke him, saving his life, not the other way around. The least he could do to show his appreciation is to pretend to be nice. </em>Aegon feared next to nothing would change Hanse's mind about him.</p><p>It was difficult for the enormously muscled bound Guard to stay low and quiet with his mass. Hanse stopped ever so often to catch his breath, as the sheer mass of his legs must have weighed as much as some small men, and he almost had to crawl to hide his overshadowing frame in the low brush. Aegon almost chuckled a few times, as his clumsy boot tips would get caught in a root and drop him, but composed himself and potentially saved himself from deadly retaliation.</p><p>"Here," Hanse whispered, "get down and stay low. Once I see the other flank is in position, we will strike. Leave no one alive." <em>What? No one? Of course, kill everyone armed, any that fight. But of those that surrender? </em>Aegon mustered the courage to ask, thinking it very important to consider leaving <em>some </em>alive potentially, but before he could speak up, Hanse gave the signal.</p><p>The two groups of guards had wormed up above the valley across from each other, pinning the small encampment between the bottoms of the two surrounding hills. They charged, softly slidng through the thinner foliage and keeping their voices down as to keep up the surprise. Something felt off as they descended though, as the encampment looked less like the formation of some martial force, and more like a village of common people. Families. Children.</p><p>Aegon panicked a moment before regaining control of his thoughts. <em>They mean to slaughter a village. Leave no one alive.</em></p><p>Aegon rushed to the front of the advance, bounding downhill while the others' feet still whispered. Hanse would probably attack him, but the brute was most like too tired to catch up. Branches whipped at his face, leaves cut at his forearms, but he bolted through the brush as quickly as anyone could to reach the village first.</p><p>He reached the base of the incline and looked back. The trails of his brothers in arms, the rummaging brush slithering down the hills on both sides, were still a good distance away, but he only had a few moments. Heart pounding, mind racing, he turned to the nearest structure, a daub and waddle single story abode the size of the magistrate's privy.</p><p>He burst in the door opening, pushing through the itchy canvas cloth that passed for a door, and officially proclaimed his intent to those inside, "Surrender now in the name of Khiana, Goddess Empress of Leng, or suffer the fate of those who oppose her Holiness."</p><p>Three pairs of eyes, two children and a woman, stared back at him in utter shock and confusion. They either didn't understand his Malhada, or were so startled by his entrance they froze.</p><p>"Get up. Now! Where can we gather all the innocent as to spare them from the potential bloodshed coming?"</p><p>"The village house. In the center. It is the biggest. I will lead them there," the woman said, taking her children by their hands. She was draped with the same course fabric style cloak, woven in a box pattern, over tattered overclothes with a red hooded robe hanging up on a line in the middle of the room. She looked neither Leg or Yit, as her skin resembled the mix more akin to ReGar's than any other he'd seen in Leng. But her color wasn't as gray. It was golden, and the mix of her Leg and Yit features spoke to a fusion of the two looks.</p><p>"Good, hurry. Gather all the women and children you can."</p><p>"This village is all women and children since the men left. None have yet to return."</p><p>
  <em>None may ever.</em>
</p><p>Bursting out of the first building, he could hear the beginnings of the attack, as his brother's in arms reached dwellings on the far side of the village. Screams and slashes could be heard echoing in the near foreground, as bodies began to scramble, children began to scream, and fires began to spread. The wholesome orange glow of the flames, which normally calmed him down, began to rile him up, as the scene was turning into a genocide more than a battleground.</p><p>"Stop! Stop! These are children! Women! The men aren't even here!" Aegon screamed, but amidst the burgeoning chaos, even he could barely even hear himself.</p><p>He circled the village center, darting back and forth, bumping into brothers in arms, and trying to subdue them with orders. "Cease, men! There's naught but innocents! Stop this madness!"</p><p>Smoke began to cloud the air around him, as the first flames spread, and soon the entirety of the village was beginning to burn. Turning from one empty daub and waddle structure, he crashed into a family of four. A woman, two girls, and a young boy, all panting in fear and from running, cowering away from him as if he were the enemy. "I mean you no harm. Stay behind me. There will be innocents in the village house."</p><p>"The village house is burning. There is nowhere to go."</p><p>"Stay behind me. C'mon. Follow me." Aegon huddled the four around him, not knowing which leg to step with next, not knowing which direction would save the most.</p><p>"Mommy. I'm scared," the boy said. "Mommy?" His wide brown eyes trembled behind the tears forming in them. He wore a blue tunic, roughly sewn and spotted with holes, with bare dirty feet and a similar complexion to the first woman. He looked up at his mother, shunning a bit from Aegon, his mop of messy curly dark hair, moving with every tremble.</p><p>Aegon looked up from the family. Before them stood Hanse. His tall hulking frame cast a shadow over them like that of a mountain, and if it wasn't the flames of the burning village house behind him, he looked big enough to block out the entire sun.</p><p>"I told you to stay out of my way, devil."</p><p>"You mean to kill these innocent women and children?"</p><p>"Every last one."</p><p>"On who's authority?"</p><p>"Your Empress'."</p><p>"Mommy," the little boy cried, clutching to both her and Aegon, ducking his head into his chest and closing his eyes as tightly as his little golden lids could close.</p><p>The heat of the flames bared down on them, as a structure behind them collapsed. The embers of the fallen wood sparked upon impact with the ground and sprinkled burning ash on Aegon and the family. He tried to pull them all in closer, away from the falling fire, but his back was not broad enough to spare them all from hot ashes singeing heat.</p><p>What was a cool caressing kiss to Aegon, was a searing flash of pain to the family. As the cherry red flakes fell onto them, one burned one daughter and the little girl jolted away from him to escape the falling fire, stumbling at Hanse's feet.</p><p>"No!" Aegon screamed, reaching out for the trailing tail of her tattered dress. His fingers gently grazed the material, but not enough to grasp her.</p><p>With no hesitation, the former pit fighter struck down at the girl with his longsword, splitting the child in two like a kitchen cook an onion. Her tiny body crumbled in a pool of red, as her sister, brother, and mother all shrieked in an agonizing cry of pain and gut-wrenching loss, piercing through Aegon's now even more guilt-stricken soul, and forcing him to quick and decisive retaliation.</p><p>He drew his right-handed dragon blade and swung it from its sheath, backhanded across the broad chest of his superior. Blood flashed like a lightning strike from his wound, and the enormous mouth of the enormous man let out a cry of his own pain. Then he growled, "I've waited for this chance since I first laid eyes on you."</p><p>Hanse reached his longsword out at Aegon, who instinctively stepped back to avoid the strike. He stumbled on the mother, crouched and grieving, and almost fell into the young boy who was crying face down next to her. Aegon rolled, avoiding landing directly on the son, only brushing by him, and planted his feet to bounce back into his attack. Hanse ignored him, and lunged for the other daughter, frozen on the other side of the mother. <em>Not again!</em></p><p>Aegon dove into him with the blade glancing by him and past him. Aegon's crashing body knocked the man slightly off course, and the other daughter was spared his sword. <em>For this moment at least.</em></p><p>He kept his feet as Aegon fell, and Hanse raised his leg to crush down onto his skull. Aegon rolled again, this time, between Hanse and the family. A clumsy lunge with the longsword to where Aegon landed allowed him to tumble forward, avoiding the steel, and back to his feet. The sword recoiled and struck again, only to be caught with Aegon's dragon blade.</p><p>They danced. Steel for steel and step for step, they were well matched. But Aegon's full-figured foe was in a slight shock, as Aegon blow for blow, stood up in strength to every reckless and powerful full forced slash of his sword. Flaming ash continued to drip down onto Aegon. Hanse's face spoke for him. It asked, "How could this be?"</p><p>Aegon caught a savage forehand slash, countering with an increase in pace. He spun his blade around until he had leverage, and countered with forehand, backhand, stab, quick backhand, coil, full forehand. The speed and strength of Aegon's blade began to wear the large man down, backing him up steps with each flick of Aegon's wrists, and swing of Aegon's magically strengthened arms.</p><p>Aegon followed with another full forehand, which Hanse parried, sending Aegon back around, spinning and crouching, quickly rotating all the way back around to deliver a backhanded vertical slice low on Hanse's thigh.</p><p>More blood flashed, the spray eye level with Aegon and blinding him. He heard and felt Hanse, step back, absorbing the cut. He moaned, then grunted. Then, he must've noticed the slight delay in Aegon as he rubbed his eyes clean of his blood and stepped back toward him with a powerful and decisive jolt from his legs on the ground.</p><p>Hanse came down with an overhead downward slash. With his right sword, one handed, he stopped the blade cold mid swing, the steel bellowing a high pitch ring. With his left, Aegon unsheathed his left dragon blade from his right hip, pulling it out of its sheath and across Hanse's chest, again, opening up an X shaped wound across the front of his superior.</p><p>His brothers in arms must have noticed, as the sack quieted down to a whisper as both villagers and their attackers became drawn into the fight before them.</p><p>"Enough," Aegon ordered, cooly, projecting his voice as to order all. "No more innocent need die today."</p><p>"It'll be enough when I'm dead, devil," Hanse replied. Then he turned to the spectating guards, "You see the treachery of this devil? Our Empress ordered to leave none alive. He speaks treason. He must be killed." Hanse continued his attack, though his blows became weaker and weaker as blood spilled from his open chest and cascaded down the front of his enormous body.</p><p>"We will bring the women and children to her Holiness and she will decide their fate." Aegon yelled to his brothers in arms as he meekly blocked each benign attempt from his superior, and forcefully parried others to cause Hanse to stumble. "I will not kill you. No more need to die today."</p><p>"You need to die!" His last attempt seemed a suicide by sword, as he put all of his weight into the backhanded swing, and crossed his legs as he lunged into the attack, leaving him off balance and over exposed. Aegon struck down with a flick of his right wrist, removing Hanse's knee and dropping him.</p><p>Aegon's back was turned to his brethren. As he sheathed his right sword, four of the guard jumped onto him as another two stretched a rope around him. More piled on as he began to scream in protest, but before he could throw off the first six, seven more, it seemed, were already on him. As he struggled to get free, he locked eyes with Tig, who was part of the second wave holding him down.</p><p>"How could you do this? You said you've only ever killed once?"</p><p>"I'm up to five now, and you were right. It does get easier every time."</p><p>They wrapped the thick rope around him so many times, he couldn't move anything but his neck.</p><p>His brothers in arms finished their mission as he helpless writhed, screaming in protest.</p><p>Flames crackled. Children screamed. And the blood of the innocent flowed freely as he could do nothing but witness the atrocity and scream hatred and hellfire at his new brothers in arms. Imperial Guard of Leng.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Dammit Tig!</p><p>Nothing to love about this chapter other than it's execution.  If you like how I laid it out, I'd love to hear it in the comments.  If you rooted for the Guard to slaughter the innocents, I'd rethink your morality, lol, but hey, if you're reading and enjoy the work, you're certainly entitled to your opinion (let's all collectively hope no one reads this and is like YES, Dead Kids and Women!) but once again, thank you for reading.</p><p>HS</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>13</p><p>"Your Holiness," Hanse said, clutching his wrapped leg, panting as he spoke, and half standing on his one good leg, "I bring you your Dragon Man as the traitor he is."</p><p>While Hanse struggled to speak, Aegon interrupted as he spoke, "This fucking cunt of a man owes me his life twice, and orders the men to tie me up. I am no traitor and only wish to see you prosper. ." before Aegon could finish his reply, her Holiness ended his retort with a violent and powerful interjection of her own.</p><p>"Silence!" Her voice cut through the commotion of both men's pleas like a serrated blade, as shrill as it had often been sultry. "Hanse. Aegon. I expected my guard to return victorious and you've returned with all of the men I sent, but with both of my best among them either brutally injured or bound like a common thief. What is the meaning of this?"</p><p>"Your Holiness," they both crooned in unison.</p><p>"Enough. Shut your mouths, the both of you." She ordered, holding her holy arms up in authority and frustration. "Hanse. Please speak first. Aegon. I will call on you when your reply is appropriate."</p><p>"When we reached the encampment," Hanse started.</p><p>"Village," Aegon interrupted.</p><p>"Silence Aegon or I'll remove that smooth tongue!" Khiana shouted, glaring at the man she recently kissed. Aegon obeyed. "Continue, Hanse."</p><p>He smirked at Aegon, and obeyed as well. "When we reached the encampment, this devil ran ahead of our ranks as to warn them and try to defend them. I killed one, as was your order, and he responded by attacking me. I fought him off the best I could, but he continued to try to defy you. He ordered to all the men, after injuring me badly, to follow <em>his </em>orders."</p><p>"Enough," she said, her glowing green eyes like wildfire, burning with contempt as her hand reached out to signal Hanse's finish. "Ser," she said, turning her blistering gaze to Aegon. "What say you to these claims of treason?"</p><p>Still bound in the thick rope, covered in thicker mud, Aegon exhaled a deep breath, trying to calm the encompassing rage coursing within him, and replied, "There were none but women and children. Hanse ordered to, "Kill them all." I wished to bring the innocents here for your judgement, to both maintain your honor, and also provide hostages to use against any foes kin to them. It was the honorable and the intelligent play. Instead, this pigshit here split a young girl in two a mere step away from me, and on my honor as a man, I could not let his atrocity play out. It was wrong!"</p><p>"And you cut him?" she asked.</p><p>"Across his chest and through his knee. I announced, loudly, that I would not kill him. Ask the men. But, after defeating him, the men bound me, and subsequently killed every woman, every child, and burned the entire village to the ground."</p><p>She turned to Hanse and asked, "This was a village?"</p><p>"Yes, My Holiness. As you said. Kill everyone. Leave none alive."</p><p>She paused, <em>as she did, </em>holding her chin in contemplation. She stood silent, pensive, staring off into the distant forest behind them. Aegon hoped she thought of the children but feared she thought of her authority.</p><p>"You both have proven your love for me. Hanse, in obeying my orders, you've shown your loyalty even in the face of doubt, which I'm sure you must have felt. And Aegon," she said, her voice calm and stern at the same time. All the guard and some of the nobles of her caravan began watching and gathering towards the exchange, curious to see their Goddess judge. "In your compassionate heart. Standing in the face of what you saw as injustice, you fought to defend my honor and the lives of the weak of my people."</p><p>"But you have both proven your stupidity as well. Hanse," she said, her face now scowling, her voice stern, "we were to attack and defeat their warriors, not their wives. Now their surviving fathers and husbands will have ever the more reason to oppose me. And you, Aegon," she said, her scolding tone almost arousing, "have defied a direct order from your superior and me, while maiming one of my most honored guards."</p><p>"What am I to do with you pathetic and useless <em>men?"</em></p><p>From behind, a small figure walked out of the crowd, with a nagging shrill voice, and wrinkled face and hands. Kiku Ma answered her, "That is why women should lead, your Holiness."</p><p>"Kiku. So good to see you. I had almost forgotten you were a part of this host. Please refrain from your council, however, as it is my charge to determine the fates of these <em>men.</em>" Khiana used the word with disdain, as if on its own it was ridicule enough.</p><p>"Guards, bring Hanse to a healer and see to it that he recovers fully. Untie this one and leave him with me." Khiana decreed, and it was done. The rest of the gathering crowd all slunk away, probably in disappointment, as with nothing else to do on the road, a show in the form of an execution or at least severe punishment would have served to please their whims.</p><p>"I can assist you and attend to you, your Holiness. Surely you want this sow to be cleaned before disgracing your presence with such filth," Kiku offered.</p><p>"No, woman. Stay towards the back with whomever you've aligned with. I know of your many talents and I am in no need of an informant or spy."</p><p>"Very well, your Holiness. Let me know if I can be of service." Kiku bowed, and glared at Aegon before departing back to the rest of the carts.</p><p>Now freed from his confinements, Aegon sat on the gravel road still lost in the horrors his eyes had seen and his body was not able to stop. Flashes of the slaughter still shook his psyche, searing images of pain and blood and terror all mixed with the overwhelming hatred he had for his brothers in arms. There was not an ounce of true honor among any of them, and as Tig said, each swing of their swords into innocents only made each subsequent swing easier. Where some of the young guards seemed hesitant before the murders, they all now seemed seasoned fiends, drenched in the blood of the young and the helpless.</p><p>He could not bring himself to look her in her face. <em>She is as much to blame for this as Hanse. It was her orders he felt he followed. It was her aim to strike back.</em></p><p>Aegon could feel her drifting toward him, her beautiful visage a distant sight behind the burning images of death in the front of his mind. When her long legs reached him, the sight of her teak feet beside him, vulnerable in her revealing sandals that wrapped around her calf and ankle like a curious vine, she crouched down, as if to comfort him.</p><p>"For what it is worth, I'm sorry." She said. Aegon looked up, his vision blurred by the welling water in the corner of his eyes. Never had he felt so helpless. Even as his ship sank into the Summer Sea, wood shards, cold rushing water, and screaming crew all flying about in the initial collision, he still had tried to save his friends. Even for only a moment, he made the attempt. That never gave him any solace in the loss of their lives, but at least he fell unconscious and couldn't bare witness to the deaths of so many.</p><p>Even with all his strength, even with the magic of the flames coursing through his body, there was nothing his body could do but struggle and watch, witnessing the worst things his eyes could ever imagine. Worse than he could ever imagine.</p><p>When her hand fell onto his shoulder, he shuttered. His arm brushed hers off gently and he turned away from her as he sat, the motions of his body more reflexive than planned. She didn't quit, returning the same compassionate gesture, landing like a dove on his shoulder, feathery and light. With her fingertips, she gently dragged down, tracing the curves of his arm to his hand, sliding her dainty palm to his. She gripped his hand and said, "I'm sorry," and with the other hand, she pulled his chin up and looked into his eyes. The emerald swirls of her glowing gaze infected him with an uneasy calm, and the rage inside him all but dissipated despite his mind still logically thinking through the atrocity.</p><p>"You are all our land needs and deserves. You are too good for this coming war. But I <em>need </em>you by my side in this. Will you be my right hand?"</p><p>He thought very little on his own and fought hard to resist the overwhelming warmth and comfort from the look in her eyes, and the power she had over him. It was unnatural. It was sorcery. It could have been the symptoms of her beauty and grace, but it wasn't. He felt it in his drifting soul. Aegon had no power of himself and his thoughts, and the horrors and evil of the attack were no more than vague remembrances as hard as he fought to retain them. The beats of his traumatic heart slowed. The pain of his helplessness vanished. And as she kept her gaze, Aegon felt less and less himself. The amulet around her neck glittering as brightly as the green of her swirling eyes.</p><p>"Rise," she ordered. He did. "You will spend until the evening preparing the litter to travel again. I dismiss the crimes against you, for you had me in your heart when you committed them." She kept staring into him, her pull growing stronger inside him each moment. "We leave at sundown and you will guard me as you have so well. I need you close to me. I need you <em>with </em>me."</p><p>Clear evening fell, as a mist of consciousness was all he was afforded. Vaguely did he remember preparing the litter, cutting out bloodied fabric where washing and scrubbing failed. Hardly could he conceptualize his own thoughts, mindlessly obeying direction and completing each task without agency over himself or his movements. It was a dream, or so it felt, and at the center was the grinning glowing face of his master.</p><p>"My Dragon Man," she said, the scene behind her blurry, and her voice muffled in his thick clouded perception. "You have done well. Now it is time for us to retire and for the progress to continue south."</p><p>His head nodded, and he slowly followed her saunter to the litter. He helped her up, lifting her gently to assist in her climb to comfort. "Fetch the feather blanket and some pillows, my love. We have earned a bit of luxury after the events of the past day or two." He grabbed them from a cabinet within the litter and splayed them over the pull out bed just before she climbed into it, already stripped of her day clothes and fully nude save her amulet, her crawl beckoning him to join, though his body waited for direction from his master.</p><p>She turned to lay on her back, swimming into the blanket and pillows, running her smooth skin of the silken green linens of the down mattress. Her playful eyes almost seemed to call to him, but he couldn't move until her voice specifically did. She patted down on the empty space next to her. "Come, my love. I'm in need of your . . . <em>protection."</em></p><p>A thought flashed in his mind. <em>Such a radiant light in this blur of darkness. It's not that I don't want it, just not like this. </em>The fleeting control and the independent thought dissipating as quickly as it came.</p><p>Aegon slid into the sheets, the emerald dye in the silk swirling ripples to his tainted senses. She reached her long arm to unfasten his armor, freeing his bare torso. Then she unlaced his breeches and pulled his pants and boots off of him. "Now, we are much more comfortable." She said.</p><p>"I want you to touch me," she said. "I want to have your strong hands hold me, feel me, from my neck to the bottom of my feet. You want me don't you?"</p><p>"Yes," his body voiced reflexively.</p><p>His hands gently reached for her neck, his fingertips gliding over the soft vulnerable skin below her necklace down to her collarbone, he could feel the beat of her heart in her veins. His blurred senses sharpened, as he could clearly focus on her warm brown skin, and the enticing shapes of her body. His fingers continued lower, finding her chest, and her breast, full swells of succulent lust tipped with almost ebony nipples which were erect and sensitive to his caressing grasp. She moaned, sending a warmth through his chest and around his manhood. A heat was rising within him, and whether he was entranced or sober, little and less could have stopped him either way.</p><p>Gliding over her navel and continuing down to her sex, Aegon started to think again, but less with his head and more with his body. He wanted to be with her. Be <em>in </em>her. But his hands continued to trace the curvature of her physique, gliding over the slit of her opening to the smooth sounds of a readied goddess, seemingly as hot as he was.</p><p>Her thighs trembled to his touch, guiding slowly downward to her knee, her calf, her ankle, and her foot. "Now please me, Aegon. Worship your goddess. Worship me like you did the one you loved. Love me like you loved her and spill your seed onto me like an offering."</p><p>His body leaned into her face, kissing her deep and aggressively. He bit her lip as he did Nahknani's, thinking of her and their times like this, and also moving as if he were completely unaware they had ever been. The taste of her lush lips and tantalizing tongue was of the heavens, it seemed. She was as calming as lavender and as fiery as pepper. The smoothness of her kiss and the fierceness of it sparked a roaring flame of desire within him. It wasn't Nahknani, but it was what he wanted, and how he wanted it. He tried to think, to feel. He couldn't. His body continued as commanded. When he thought, he couldn't help but think he was missing out on something he was partaking in.</p><p>His lips followed the same course of his fingers, neck to chest. He tasted each breast, savoring the salt of the sweat of the day, and the sweet natural nectar of her chocolate skin, enjoying every bit his mind allowed himself to comprehend, as the encounter was as much a dream as it was a jagged reality.</p><p>His lips pushed against her ribs, her navel, and the beginning of her region where clothing always covered. Light pecks, like he'd place on Nahknani, above and next to her sex, titillating the sensitive skin surrounding her opening, caused the Goddess among Men to squirm and sound like a whore at work. But there was a sincerity in her movements and there was a truth in her moans. Aegon wouldn't have stopped, but he wasn't in control either.</p><p>His lips meshed with hers, the wetness welling, the top of her opening lightly pulsing as his tongue stretched out slowly to taste it. She exhaled, with a grunt and a smile, and he kissed her below as he had once for <em>her. </em>Both remembering and unaware in the same moments.</p><p>As he closed his eyes, the movements of his mouth and tongue focusing on the slick pink wetness of her sex, his world began to spin into a dream sequence of the same swirling green of her eyes. Wildfire surrounded and cooled him, both warming and raging inside his heart and member, and never knowing or thinking but for moments in between the bliss, and the naivete.</p><p>It was long enough for her entire body to tense, her mouth to yell in rhythmic bursts of sound, more calls of a wild thing than words of an Empress, and her hands to grab his head through his thick dark hair and push his face closer, quivering and jolting under the intense pleasure from his tongue. "Fuck me, Aegon. Fuck me and finish all over me."</p><p>He climbed her and obeyed. His fully hardened member slid immediately into her, her eyes widening and her mouth opening with a coo and a gasp. He pushed into her, flowing into the swirling green of her eyes that he both stared into as he thrusted, and couldn't escape even with his eyes closed.</p><p>Each thrust she screamed, each push deeper and further into her until it seemed like they became one piece of exotic lust and he didn't know where she began and he ended. Her clawing grasp tore at his back, eliciting faster and harder strokes. The dream state hardly faltering from controlling his movements and mind, he obeyed exactly as his master commanded. He fucked Khiana until his body could not hold the pleasure in, though for the last quarter hour his mind would flash conscious and feel his exhaustion if but for an instant. Feeling the rush gathering to erupt, he pulled himself back, and shot off with a moan, pouring himself on her like the offering she commanded. When he released, he could feel a bit of himself slipping back in, and wondered whether he enjoyed himself, or if he was just the utensil in a game he was spectator to. His thoughts left again as quickly as they came.</p><p>"Grab me some linen from the cabinet to clean this, my love," she ordered, her eyes closed and her body flat against the bed wallowing in the ecstasy of their copulation. He did as he was bid, his mind gaining more of itself the further away from his climax time passed. A queer sense of control, or the lack of control washed over him as he began to be able to think, and the flashes of horror from earlier that day started to trickle back into the forefront of his mind.</p><p>As ordered, he handed a cloth to the Empress to clean herself, and stood at the side of the bed, expressionless, awaiting her next command. "I have a thirst, my love. Go and fetch both water and wine from one of the carts. We shouldn't be moving so quickly that you couldn't make either the caravan stop or the baggage carts stop for their Empress. Hurry back though, if I'm not asleep, I'd like another go of it."</p><p>He turned to jump out of the litter when she stopped him, "Wait, my love. I know your wits aren't all about you, but it would not do for you to traipse around our caravan without a stitch of clothing. What will the rest of the guard think? My subjects? Please redress yourself as if you had only been guarding me."</p><p>Aegon quickly dressed himself, able to think a few moments more between strapping on his armor and lacing up his boots, and leapt from the litter to gather the Empress' water and wine. He leapt out of the litter once dressed and signaled to the lead cart. He began to slow as Aegon walked back to where the provisions were kept for her Holiness.</p><p>It was a mere two or three carts away, so he reached it still in a haze, and still not controlling his actions. His body spoke for him, and the cart's attendant obliged his request, and before Aegon could even regain an additional thought, he was already walking back towards the litter.</p><p>For a moment, he was still clouded, until a bright flash and he could sense everything. The pain of the sack on the village, the rush of his fight with Hanse, the betrayal of Tig and his other brothers, the ecstasy of Khiana, and the shame of the forced nature of their coming together, all erupted into his awareness all at once. The overwhelming rush of different emotions shook him into a dramatic break down, as he fell to his knees, his hands empty already having dropped both skins. He sobbed silently for a moment, thinking of the children, the woman, the lost love he felt he betrayed in being with Khiana, and the way he seemed unwillingly compelled to do so. A small wrinkled hand comforted his shoulder, the same way Khiana did hours before, and even more rushes of emotion filled his brain to the point he felt his thoughts overflowing, and his hurting head damaged from intense overuse.</p><p>"Now, now," Kiku said sympathizing. With what, she couldn't know, but he could sense her honesty. "I knew you were in some kind of state, I just didn't think it to be that strong."</p><p>"I was unable to control myself. My thoughts, my actions, they seemed apart, or something."</p><p>"I had to burn you to wake you up." Kiku said, offering the torch as evidence. "I've been in the next cart, waiting for you, hoping she'd send you to fetch something. I've brought your horse. We must go."</p><p>"You expect to flee? Now? Where would we go? And for what?"</p><p>"Will we meet Kaono at or before Virgin's Crossing. He must know of all this."</p><p>"Of all what? Hanse killed everyone. It doesn't even matter and will most like be swept under a rock and left to never be spoken of except by the members of this progress. It wasn't a planned cleansing. Hanse got information from one of them, and mistakenly thought more men would be there and followed his direct orders from her Holiness. He misunderstood her intentions."</p><p>"What if he didn't?"</p><p>"What do you mean?"</p><p>"There was no informant. There was no soldier exposing them. This village you speak is a known settlement of refugees from the Greater Moraq Incursion. When we recovered Lengii stolen into slavery, Dat Kumo II also liberated slaves from other lands. Many went home. Some had no home, so they returned with Dat II here. This village has been one of the few known settlements they began some hundred years ago and have been keeping to themselves since."</p><p>"So what are you saying?"</p><p>"I overheard the Empress ordering Hanse to do what was done. When the ranging party left, you were in a similar trance and were none the wiser. He was ordered to find the village and erase their lives from all but memories. She knew there'd be innocents and sent her dogs anyway."</p><p>Aegon became even more emotional, staring into the dulled brown eyes of his tutor. She had no power over him other than the trust she'd earned and the harshness of the truth in her message. Yet his understanding of her words meant more confusion, and even more contempt, for the Empress he has already lost love for in the love making he didn't share in, but took place never the less.</p><p>
  <em>I am but a pawn. Her toy and tool. Her indestructible weapon of war, her pleasure vice, and her impassable wall of protection. She knows of Sothoryos. She knows of my reputation. How could I have been so stupid to be played such a fool?</em>
</p><p>"If we leave now, it could mean death to us both."</p><p>"Would you rather live as her puppet?" Kiku asked, extending the reigns to Pal to his trembling hands.</p><p>
  <strong>A/N</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Thanks for reading, as always. What do you think? Leave me a comment or shoot me a pm.</strong>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>If you haven't read my work before, I apologize after the fact and in advance on the mature themes (including but not limited to rape; torture; gore; etc) and scenes within my works.  </p><p>Was it rape?  Was Aegon forced into making love to a beautiful Empress?  Great question.  Now you're into one of the main conflicts and themes of this work.  Will you get a definitive answer from me?  No.  Will your own answer be derived from the words within the story as this storyline and others around it progresses?  Hopefully so.</p><p>Thanks you rascals for reading.  Stay tuned.</p><p>HS</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>14</p><p>He woke stretching his arms against the soft silk linens of the litter's bed. His arm grazed over the naked skin of his Empress, and his head pounded with the ache of his intoxication. It seemed years since he woke with the same pain, still drunk most like, in the shit hole of a hovel in the outskirts of Leng Ma, preparing for a long day of hard rowing, except those mornings were the result of an intoxication he chose.</p><p>With Pal's reigns in his hands the previous night, he couldn't bring himself to leave. Kiku's dulled brown eyes looked at his hesitation with a disgusted disappointment, as her first thought was that he'd been fully lost to the temptress' sorcery forever.</p><p>The enormous weight of every emotion suppressed under the spell hit Aegon hard and sunk deep into his soul. Glimpses of every brutally murdered innocent flashed in his mind's eye causing an almost visceral reaction each time, as he could feel the swords cutting through him as they did the children.</p><p>Then he could see the swirling green euphoria of the last hours and his gooseprickled skin could feel the smooth softness of her inner thigh. He could smell the scent of her hair mixed with a lavender cream. In the same moments he remembered the horror of the slaughter, he felt the ecstasy of her sex. She had clearly forced it, Aegon knew, but he would have eventually attempted his own advance if she had proven worthy. He was torn.</p><p>
  <em>No. I did not consent. It is still my choice in whom I lay, or I'm just a whore and a slave.</em>
</p><p>Another part of him answered, a part that he didn't fully understand.</p><p>
  <em>She only freed me to do what I wanted. Only the memory of a dead lover kept me from satiating my lust for such a beautiful treasure. She only cleared my mind, making it easier to get what she wanted. What we both wanted.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>For me to excuse her, does that mean she still has a hold on me?</em>
</p><p>Regardless of his indecision, he couldn't leave. Not now. <em>Not yet, anyway. </em>He needed to know more.</p><p>He needed to confront his abuser and discover the truth for himself. As he felt betrayed, he felt even more infatuated with her. He was used, but for something he himself desired. And if he deserted Khiana without an explanation or excuse, he and Kiku both would be as good as dead.</p><p>Aegon decided he'd stay, but he needed Kiku on his side. Part of him agreed they should leave. If he was permanently affected by her spell more and more each time she performed it, he may never again be as clear as he was. Though, as unclear as he felt, he thought, <em>is it already too late?</em></p><p>"If we run from our problems, they'll become the problems of others. If what you say is true, we need to learn more. Not only to determine the extent of the treachery, but to arm those in positions to oppose the threat with the truth," he said.</p><p>"Men's secrets have been my life's work. Learning the truth of a man has and never will be a difficult task. I cannot say the same for women. And for a woman that sees herself a god? All the more so." She said, her torch hand raising toward him.</p><p>"Easy there. I need no more awakenings or enchantments. Use the fire to see, for now. I will return to the Empress and begin my interrogation."</p><p>"How do you intend to find your answers from her?"</p><p>"The same way you'd find your answers from a man."</p><p>Aegon gathered the skins of water and wine, ordered the procession to continue their course, and returned to the litter. Kiku returned to wherever she hid, slipping into the shadows as easy as an assassin.</p><p>While he thought of how to approach his oppressor, he knew the mix of admiration and disdain in his mind and heart would leave him vulnerable to her manipulations. He still wasn't sure what he wanted, or what his aim was in returning to her, but he knew with all the honor in his being, he needed to confront her. He needed her truth.</p><p>As he stepped into the litter the night before, she was lying on the bed, still undressed, the silk sheets draped over her body as to slightly conceal her curves. He stepped to her with a fierce bravado, hoping to whatever gods she wasn't as evil as he thought she might be.</p><p>"No more!" he ordered, taking initiative and control.</p><p>"What?" she asked, befuddled at his dominance.</p><p>"Never again will you put me under whatever spell it was. I am no one's slave. I am no one's whore!" His anger and resentment were all the more palpable to him as he bared his emotions to the naked woman lying beneath his intense glare.</p><p>"You are a powerful, mighty man among the lesser," she said, smirking. "None have ever broken my spell, though none have ever entered me as you have."</p><p>"Enough of your games. I joined this progress to protect you, not serve as your dog of war and your pleasure thing to toy with."</p><p>Khiana sat up, the sheet slipping off her, and she adjusted her posture as if to regain some of the control that was lost. She began to stare into his eyes, which he averted, looking away and covering them to avoid her spell.</p><p>"I will not enchant you again, Aegon, my love. I respect your strength and your honor in confronting me. I have not grown used to using my influence as of yet, and I may have overstepped in my control of you." Her face wore the honesty of a much younger, inexperienced girl. Though a ruler now, she was no more than twenty, if even that, and she showed it in the naïve doe eyed pout she wore as she attempted to reconcile her sorcery.</p><p>"Overstepped? You silenced my rage after the slaughter <em>you </em>concocted, and you took my mind and body as your tool and toy. I had respected you. I was growing to have affection for you. Now how am I to trust you or my feelings around you? The past hours were against my will!"</p><p>She reached out her hand, her face still moping. Aegon shied away, still seething with intense and burning anger towards her betrayal. She was persistent, reaching again, gently touching his arm with her feather soft fingertips. The caress was as powerful as her look, but it wasn't magical. It was the deeper feelings that had already taken root in his heart, before she took advantage of him, fighting with the idea that she was as treacherous as he feared.</p><p>She looked away as she spoke. "I never meant to hurt you."</p><p>"What did you mean?"</p><p>"To fuck. I wished to fuck you, and you seemed disinterested enough you wouldn't. I've heard of your pain. I understand your sorrow. But I felt it a kindness to erase the horror of the village and a reward to grant you my maidenhead."</p><p>"You had never laid with a man before?"</p><p>"No. And I will not again until my wedding day, unless you wish otherwise."</p><p>"Not only am I grieving my loss, you are the Empress. You are not to be touched by the lowly likes of me."</p><p>"If I'm to be touched, I will decide who does so. And you are no commoner. You are my consort and of the royal line of the Targaryens of Westeros. Any that challenge my authority are welcome to do so at their peril. You have tasted my power," she said.</p><p>Aegon interrupted, "So you know of your power. You know of its strength. You act innocent and coy as if you don't, but you knew exactly what you were doing to me and you will continue to do so as you see fit."</p><p>"No one has ever broken my hold before as you have. There is a power in you unlike any ever. I vow to never use my eyes again on you, unless you command it." There was a sincere desperation in her plea.</p><p>"And what is the word of an Empress worth to her guard? What assurances do I have to know your word is true?"</p><p>"My truth is mine, and in time, I promise to share it. Now is no time to reveal the truth, however,"</p><p>"Now<em> is</em> the time for truth, woman!" he said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her close, looking into her eyes as if he dared her to use them.</p><p>"The truth is I am in love with you, ser. Unhand me unless you mean to kiss me."</p><p>He did. The fire in their connection sparked a lust in Aegon he couldn't turn back from. He knew it was true. He didn't know how a woman so young could feel so deeply for a man she barely knew, but he could taste it. The way she pushed back into him, her soft lips and slick tongue deliciously violent in response to his aggressive advance, he could feel the passion brimming.</p><p>"I want you to take me, of your own will. I will never use you again. This land, <em>my land</em>, is yours if you want it." She pushed him off as if to show him her body, a sight to be seen in any mood. "All of it. Every inch."</p><p>The next morning, after another two times with her Holiness, he woke to the blinding light of the sun, cutting through the curtains and his closed eyes like daggers. The pain from his intoxication reminded him of before they reconciled. The smooth warmth of her still naked form reminded him of after.</p><p>"Is it morning yet, love?" she cooed, akin to a morning dove.</p><p>"That or the forest is ablaze," he replied, shielding his eyes from the sun's rays as if he was averting from her powerful gaze.</p><p>Aegon still didn't know how to feel, but his desires betrayed any rational disdain he had for the murderous abuser. Though her actions before he returned to the tent were deplorable, he couldn't help but feel for her. It wasn't unnatural in the sense that it was powered by sorcery, but her allure was intoxicating with or without her eyes swirling green, and the amulet glowing brown.</p><p>"We must dress before Akino pops in to check on me. A dolt he is, through and through, but he is as loyal as he is dumb."</p><p>Feeling as sheepish as he could ever feel, like a maid turned bed slave again, he dressed and looked at the Empress still struggling in how he saw her. "We should be apart for a while, to keep up appearances. Is there something I can do for her Holiness?"</p><p>"You've done all I could ever want and more. You are dismissed to do what you wish, my love. By the evening I expect you back by my side. I will send Akino back to guard my belongings once night descends upon us again.</p><p>Once dressed, he turned to her, "Your Holiness." He bowed, accepting his leave.</p><p>"My love," she replied, as sweet as fresh honey. Despite his misgivings, he grinned at the smooth sound of her voice, and the brightness of her beautiful smile.</p><p>With the procession progressing through the forest, tall dense formations of trees standing guard on both sides, it was harder for Aegon to find another place to be than beside his Empress. He walked beside the moving carts, a seemingly endless train of people and things that crawled by at a snail's pace. Thinking of Kiku, thinking of Nahknani, and thinking of the innocent people he couldn't save, he drifted aimlessly, lost in contemplation until an unfamiliar voice called out to him.</p><p>"Excuse me, ser. Can you help us here?"</p><p>Aegon turned, alerted to the call for help, and noticed a young woman, no older than the Empress herself, dressed in a Yit robe with long hanging sleeves, reaching out to him as if she hailed his arrival. Her long black hair whipped back and forth across her face as she waved, and the look in her eyes was closer to helpless than hopeful.</p><p>"What is it?" he asked, unconcerned with anything other than her polite plea.</p><p>"My father is sick, and is in need of a healer. Do you know where the healer's cart is?"</p><p>Aegon was unfamiliar with anything other than the front of the train. Pal was still hitched to the Empress' litter, and he had done nothing but fight and protect her since departing from Leng Yi days ago. Well, other than sleeping with her.</p><p>"I'm sorry. I do not. But I can find them and send them to you," he said.</p><p>"Thank you, ser. Thank you. Please hurry. He's taken a turn for the worse."</p><p>An easy and trivial mission seemed to be the perfect stressless distraction from the inner turmoil tearing through his soul. Healers were usually easy enough to find. Many of their carts were marked to clearly distinguish themselves from other travelers, and as Aegon searched the procession, asking some of the nobles as he went, he eventually came upon their cart with the aid of another sickly traveler.</p><p>"They are this way," she said, her old face weary and her frail body barely moving. Aegon followed her slow pace, as it seemed she was allowing the carts to pass her more than she tried to make progress towards them.</p><p>"In here, your Honor," she said, bowing in submission, allowing him to enter first.</p><p>"No. You are in need more than I, and I need to bring him to another cart. See him first. I will deal with him after." Though he felt it urgent to get the healer back to the young woman that requested him, Aegon couldn't in good conscious turn this fragile old woman away without first getting the care she needed.</p><p>He helped her climb in after the cart had stopped. The cart's driver rushed them with an unconcerned tone and harsher words. "She's to die soon anyway. What can a healer do for an old wench as this?"</p><p>Aegon shot a glare at the driver, to which he ceased in his outburst, as Aegon lifted the feather light woman into the cart and held onto its side as the driver brought the horses back up to a trot.</p><p>For a half hour, the woman was inside the cart, hidden by the curtain flowing from the entrance. When she reemerged, she seemed to have shed years off her wrinkled face. The strength in her gait returned, and she recovered so, that she nimbly jumped from the moving cart and began to scurry back to where she came.</p><p>
  <em>What did they do for her?</em>
</p><p>After wondering how she was healed, Aegon ducked inside the cart himself to alert the healer of the young woman's father. Lying in a cot built into the frame of the carriage, Hanse was all but out cold, his wounded leg wrapped in browning linens, and his chest bare with a salve smeared into the slices. It stunk. The leg must have begun to sour, and Aegon felt less sorry for the man as his hatred for Hanse's vile and sinister erasure of innocents only grew as his love for the Empress deepened. <em>Surely someone is to blame.</em></p><p>"Are you the healer in this caravan?" Aegon asked.</p><p>"Some call me healer, yes," the man affirmed, looking up from his mortar and pestle.</p><p>"A young woman wishes you to tend to her father further up the train. She says he is sick and worsening by the moment."</p><p>He stood, his garb plain but fashioned from a fine woven cotton, dyed all blue. His face was hardened with years of the illness and death he'd treated, but there was a hopeful gleam in his eyes and a slight grin that seemed stenciled to his mouth. "Lead me to them."</p><p>They jumped from the cart to more groaning from the driver, and hurried to where the young woman was towards the front of the caravan. He moved well for a man of his age, likely older than forty, and his short Yit body looked stout and strong.</p><p>When they reached where Aegon had met the young woman, he pointed to the cart and said, "I believe she's in there."</p><p>"Care to join me?" the healer asked, as Aegon began to head back towards the front of the procession. He was caught off guard by the request. <em>Me? Why?</em></p><p>Without a good enough reason to deny the invitation, Aegon agreed, and followed the healer into the cart. He had no experience healing other than using the flames to heal himself, but a strange curiosity urged him in. After seeing the elder woman emerge from his cart with such vigor, he wanted to witness the healer's process.</p><p>The young woman was at her father's side, lying, covered in blankets, as pale as milk and shivering. She held his hand, pain and fear in her eyes as she stared into his weakening face. Aegon saw the fear of the innocents in her. Felt the pain of the orphans as their mothers were murdered in front of them.</p><p>Without more than a thought, and not even a word, the healer pulled out vile from inside his robe. He popped the cork and poured it into the man's mouth. The liquid was a viscous amber, almost glowing, and it resembled a stone he'd become familiar with. The healer reached for the man's head after he swallowed the contents of the vial, and he lowered his ear to the man's chest.</p><p>"Thank you for bringing him, ser," she said. "My father struggles with travel. Normally he's just uneasy from the shaking of the cart, but this is something different, I fear."</p><p>"No need for your thanks, my lady. It is never too much to help those in need."</p><p>She smiled, glancing at his arms before returning her eyes back up to his. "You're too kind. And I'm not a lady. I'm just a member of the serving girls."</p><p>"You seem a lady to me. To be fair, I'm no knight."</p><p>She looked at him puzzled as if his speech was off.</p><p>"There is no word for 'knight' as you Westerosi call it, in Malhada. You told her you are no evening," said the healer with a smirk on his face.</p><p>The three sets of their eyes turned to the father, who began to cough in a fit, struggling to breathe between each violent burst of air out of his aged lungs. The young woman clutched his hand as the healer began to search for another remedy in his robe. The man's eyes seemed to bulge from his face, as they reddened and widened with each cough. His pallid expression began to turn purple as the young woman began to whine and sob over the gruesome display. "You need not worry, girl. Just another sip of this and he'll be past the worst of it," the healer said.</p><p>He poured another liquid, this one a dark blue like the color of his clothes, and immediately the father stopped his fit. After one stressful tensing of his body, his arms, back, and legs stiffening dramatically, he fell back down onto the cot in a calm, peaceful surrender.</p><p>"What have you done to him?" the young woman cried.</p><p>"Wait a moment, girl. Just another moment," he said. His face still smeared with a slight grin.</p><p>The next moment, he sighed, the normal color back in his face, as he opened his eyes and looked upon his daughter. "What's the fuss about little flower?"</p><p>"Father!" she cried, her eyes still wet, falling into the old man with an encompassing hug. "Thank you. Thanks to you both," she said, her face buried into her father maintaining her embrace.</p><p>"You're welcome, dear," the healer said. "If he reverts back, seek me immediately." And with that, he ducked and leapt from the cart.</p><p>Aegon nodded to the young woman, though she was still holding her father, and followed the healer out of the cart.</p><p>"Excuse me," Aegon called.</p><p>"What is it, your Honor?"</p><p>"How do you heal these people? Is it some unknown alchemy you use?"</p><p>"Alchemy? No. The stones from the ground here have been used for centuries. There is a hidden power amongst the jade and sapphires, more valuable than either, in my eyes at least."</p><p>"Why aren't more people healing like this?"</p><p>"The stones have been used by healers since ancient times. It is an ancient art, and we do not share our secrets. I've told you enough. Run along. There's more for me to do before the sun sets. Good day."</p><p>
  <em>Ancient art? Looks to me like more sorcery.</em>
</p><p>Aegon hustled back towards the front of the train. The Imperial Guard had all but forsaken him as an official member, and since Hanse was laid up in the healer's tent, the next most senior guard, Chubahno Con Quilla stepped up in his stead. Though a long-standing member of the Imperial Guard, he was lesser known and even lesser respected, as his words carried the weight of the sickly woman from earlier. Chubahno had neither the gall or the will to approach Aegon with duties or tasks to complete, so Aegon wandered aimlessly back and up the procession without specific purpose or direction now that he had helped the young woman.</p><p>As he passed the members of the guard keeping watch of the perimeter of the caravan, he began to notice the cold stares he received from the horsed men, once his brothers-in-arms, as he moved by. Aegon held them all accountable for every life taken in the village, and although he didn't recognize most from the small party that had ventured into the woods, he blamed each all the same. Each seemed to equally blame him for the maiming of their leader, and a man they all feared and respected.</p><p>Their horses kept to a slow trot, and he passed more and more as he made his way up the caravan. Each time, he looked to see if it was Tig, for he would have attacked the man there and then if he saw him. None was Tig, despite how fervently he wished each of them to be him.</p><p>"Hey, stupid," he heard whispered in Valyrian from the inside of a cart he passed. It was the shrill and familiar tone from an old friend. "Did she dismiss you after another few goes at it? You mustn't be all that I had expected." Kiku peeked her small face out of the curtain, her disappointment still palpable in every word and expression worn on her wrinkled face.</p><p>"Is that any way to speak to your star pupil?"</p><p>"Get in here before the guards see. I don't want them reporting our meetings to that woman."</p><p>Glancing to ensure it was clear, he quickly climbed into her cart before any of the guards caught notice.</p><p>Kiku sat in the crowded cart with two much younger Yit girls huddled in one corner. "Don't mind them," she said in Valyrian, "they will do no harm."</p><p>"Spies of yours?" he asked.</p><p>"Of my daughter's, but all eyes in this realm are mine to see when I need them." She grinned. These women might as well have been suckling pigs, and Kiku would still claim them her spies. Aegon enjoyed Kiku's games, but as quickly as the smirk appeared on her face, it dissipated into disappointment just so. "What of your interrogation? Did you get her to say anything other than your name last night?"</p><p>"It is slow going, my sweet, but she says she loves me and will never enchant me again. I will allow her the until she proves me wrong."</p><p>"Such a sweet lie love is. Well, if you're still her creature, I will be careful in what I say to you, but know this: that woman is not the innocent maid you see her to be."</p><p>"Not anymore she isn't," he said, laughing to himself.</p><p>"The conquering pride of a man. That is the original deceit of all women. We allow men to feel powerful, in control. All the while, we as the better sex are the riders. Men our steeds beneath our thighs."</p><p>"Spoken like a true madame, Kiku."</p><p>"When this all turns to shit, and it seems it will inevitably, I will gaze into those purple eyes and I want you to remember that stupid smile you have right now. When you realize I'm right, it'll be too late to turn back."</p><p>"I trust you, Kiku. Do you trust me?"</p><p>"With a beautiful woman like Khiana? I trust you as much as any other man. Which is to say not at all. When I sent women to you, you denied them. Your constitution was strong. I respected that. Now," she paused, insinuating the rest of her message.</p><p>"Now what?"</p><p>"Look at you. Do you remember what I told you last night? She ordered the slaughter of that settlement. She is the villain. This progress is set for more of the same."</p><p>The girls in the corner spoke to her in a tongue he didn't understand. Many of the words sounded similar to Malhada, but either their accents hid the dialect from his untrained ear, or they spoke a tongue from a whole other land entirely.</p><p>"You must go. Run back to your Empress. I have said all I will on the matter. Find me when you find your truth."</p><p>Aegon nodded, smiled at his tutor, and jumped back out of the cart.</p><p>
  <em>Whose words weigh more?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Is love her sweetest lie?</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So, he didn't leave.</p><p>Internally, Aegon is fighting with his lustful desires and his sense of honor and righteousness.  </p><p>This internal struggle will continue, but as you can see, something else might be shaping Aegon's decision making.  </p><p>Or is he just playing both sides when he really is pleased with the type of attention he's getting from a beautiful and powerful woman?</p><p>What about Nani? (Read Sothoryos)</p><p>Anyway, what do you guys think?</p><p>Let me know, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading.</p><p>HS</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 15</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>15</p><p>The Empress lied next to him, sweat from their passionate romp still beading on her forehead. The sweltering burn of the jungle intensified as they traveled further south, and even the darkness of night provided little relief. Aegon was unaffected by the heat, but the heavy wet air still stifled him and made it so that he shared in the discomfort of those around him.</p><p>Khiana had stayed true to her word, as of yet, with no further attempts to enchant him. While he guarded her, close to her side earlier that evening, little more was discussed than the requirements of her Holy duties once he returned to her litter. Members of the guard, including Chubahno Con Quilla, as well as a few of the noteworthy nobles that had joined the progress met in her litter and discussed food stores, travel routes, and other authoritative topics Aegon had no interest in. As they bantered back and forth on how to divvy up the meat among the nobles, and how much wine and soku each lord was entitled to per day, Aegon couldn't help but drift off in thought of how unusually conflicted he felt about Khiana, and about how Kiku warned him of her.</p><p>Deliberated amongst annoying nobles too entitled to compromise over the most minute of inconveniences, her shining smile and bubbling personality continued to seduce him. Even her posture, at times, reminded him of the way her perfectly sculpted body felt under him, and in one moment, he had to adjust his breeches while reminiscing of their recent physical encounters.</p><p>As she rolled to her side in the bed, mumbling a parting coo in her silky smooth voice, dressed in nothing but her amulet, he remembered thinking of how near perfect she was in those moments. She drifted asleep, and just before he joined her in his own slumber, he saw the victims of Hanse's slaughter, his heart aching to lay so close to the true perpetrator according to his trusted advisor and tutor Kiku.</p><p>He drifted off himself, with the confused thoughts of both extremes battling in his tired mind.</p><p>That night, he dreamt vivid dreams.</p><p>A constant and disturbing low beat of a drum rumbled on and on. Bum bum bum. Bum bum bum. Bum bum bum. The world that surrounded him was a green swirling sky of wildfire, and a rocking sea of blue-green foam. He clutched a splinter of a sunken ship, Strong Winds remnants if he remembered correctly, but his perception only reminded him of the feeling of being adrift, lost to the whims of an unrelenting sea.</p><p>He gazed up into the jade sky. Sparkling flecks of light glittered back at him. It started to swirl, pulling him upward. He heard the voice of his tutor, "Such a sweet lie love is."</p><p>Staring deeply into the burning green, he could feel its pull, softly and cordially bringing his body, his mind, and his soul closer.</p><p>Clouds formed above him, swirling in the current of the wind, darkening the emerald tint until the sky was a deep green as the broad leaves of the forest. Lightning flashed, and as it did, a searing pain struck Aegon in his chest. As the bolt cracked through the dark green sky, he could hear the screams of the children. Thunder boomed, startling him, and he hovered over the sea, suspended in the stormy air above the sea, but its pull upward ceased, and he saw back down at the crashing surface of the water, his distorted reflection undiscernible even when the water was flat enough to catch him. He couldn't see himself as he looked down, and he didn't feel himself in the air.</p><p>Floating, he gazed back up, the storm flowing in a circle around a small opening in the clouds. As lightning flashed again, it showed the paste white face of the painted skull, and he mumbled the words, "She's not who she seems to be!"</p><p>Rain started to fall. Thick crimson rain. It hit his lips, and he tasted metal. The storm poured blood over him, and instead of the disgust he thought he should feel, he felt elated, euphoric even, as his gaze stared into the storm's center, and the green opening began to glow.</p><p>The storm intensified, and the strikes of lightning flashed quicker and quicker, each stretching bolt another image. Another face.</p><p>He saw the red hooded assassin, tall, dark, and speaking Valyrian. He saw the devilish smirk of ReGar. The dismembered form of Shinsou Chou, his open mouth stuffed with a Soul Shard. The pompous gloating grin of Kato Soon. The contemptuous glare of Hanse Trayna.</p><p>He remembered Shinsou's disemboweled message, and he imagined the threat on this land as The Old Ones come again.</p><p>The clouds thinned. The rain stopped, and the dark green sky lightened, glowing like wildfire fully aflame. The cooling heat tingled his skin until the hair on his arms stood, and the ache in his heart eased. His body began to ascend again, climbing higher in the bright green sky.</p><p>He thought he'd fear how high he was, rising over the sea taller than the highest crenel of a castle, but he felt no danger. No reluctance.</p><p>The green enveloped him. He embraced it. The fire of the swirling inferno charged the magic in his blood. He could feel the rush of battle, the fierce lust for blood and vengeance, and a queer apprehension he couldn't explain all at once.</p><p>The flames spread to the sea, igniting as if it were pitch, and the emerald flames spread rapidly as far as his eyes could see. From horizon to horizon, it covered the blue tide until everything was the center of her eyes.</p><p>The charming feeling of content washed over him, and he surrendered to the sky. As he did, he closed his eyes. When they opened, the green had gone dark, pitch black all around him, and he began to fall, plummeting down into an abyss of black, his stomach felt as if it climbed to his chest, and he tried to scream to no avail. Silently, he descended further into the darkness.</p><p>His descent halted suddenly. A stone floor caught his feet, and the steady drip of water splashed softly somewhere in the distance. A single light illuminated the corner of the room he stood, an underground room it seemed. A basement. A dungeon.</p><p>In the corner of the room, bound loosely in shackles and chains, was the vision of his Empress, except she looked worn. Her body was fully nude, including her neck which wore no amulet, and her voluptuous frame seemed to have emaciated to almost nothing. Her once full lush lips were cracked and dry. Her smooth chest was now jagged, her ribs visible through her teak skin. Her hair was matted and wild, frizzy and frayed. And her bright beautiful smile was gone, as if it never existed, replaced by the sunken frown of a victim.</p><p>"Help me," she whispered almost inaudibly. "Remember our night in the Dragon Pool? Save me Dragon King. Save me from this living hell."</p><p>The vision of her was more tangible than a dream. He couldn't explain it, but it felt real. He knew he wasn't awake, but the vision he saw didn't seem a dream.</p><p>He felt eyes on him, peering down from above and behind. He turned to see two orbs of swirling green glaring down from the blackness above. His heart hurt, and he saw air or dust seep from his body and vortex up towards them. His body stayed in place, as something that made him, something that was him floated out of his pores like his soul was leaving. He reached in the darkness to grab it, to keep hold of it.</p><p>But it was naught but air. It faded and his body fell limp.</p><p>He woke in a cold sweat, popping up off the soft bed in a fright. He looked around in a slight panic. The litter. Khiana. I'm awake now. A sigh left his lungs and lips, and he stood up to find the Empress' soku skin. He needed a drink.</p><p>Gulps of burning liquid drowned his anxiousness, and after he quickly finished the drink, he belched, and returned to the comfort of her bed. His head felt lighter and he tried to remember the dream. He couldn't and he fell back asleep.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A dream.</p><p>Both a convention of Martin's works as well as something I've been doing in this series.</p><p>Did it work?</p><p>Do you get the foreshadowing?</p><p>What do you think?</p><p>I'd sincerely LOVE to hear about it</p><p>Thanks</p><p>HS</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Chapter 16</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>16</p><p>"What is the status of our progress?" she asked, wearing an official gown and headdress Aegon had never seen on her.</p><p>Chubahno Con Quilla sat next to two other guards Aegon had never met wearing their traditional black armor, both Yits, young, but larger for their age. They hadn't been there, but as Aegon studied them, he could see the expressions of the others on their faces, and blamed them all the same for the carnage in the village. Chuba himself, not threatening enough to blame for the bloodshed of anyone, wore an ornately trimmed overcoat with clasps in the shapes of his house's emblem connecting a silver linked chain in front, with two padded and frilled shoulder pads that gave him a forced official look.</p><p>He dressed for the part and performed, all too eager to help her Holiness forget about the man who had guarder her since birth, and relished in every official duty he now was responsible for. His skin was darker than most Yits, and his beard fuller. His voice was deep, like the low hum of a battle drum, but his stature did not match his tone. Little taller than Kiku, and slighter in build than most Leg women, he did not look to be a fighter or warrior, but he carried himself as if he held prestige.</p><p>"We are a mere four or five days out from The Crossing, your Holiness, and I intend to send advance scouts to ensure no further attacks are waiting for us," he said, his face clearly pleased with his clever attempt at competency.</p><p>"Who do you have in mind for such an order, Chuba? Who among your guard can be trusted with the importance of this task, but is also capable enough if a skirmish were to arise?"</p><p>"I myself, your Holiness," he said. Aegon chuckled to himself as he said it, hoping his face still hid his opinion. "But my place is here with you. I have men who've been blooded and men I trust above all else. I was to send a party of fourteen capable riders. Only one need return to alert us if there is trouble."</p><p>"That maybe so, but it is not my intent to run scared and fourteen men will not be so easily hidden. We need a small group of our fiercest fighters," Khiana said, seemingly uninterested with Chuba and his ambitions. "None of the men you speak of will do, in this case, would they?"</p><p>"How small a group, your Holiness? Smaller than ten and I cannot assure they will live to tell us the information we need."</p><p>"I know of two I can send that just as easily could quell any attack, as they could stealthily avoid one all together."</p><p>"Two men? Who among us could succeed if there were even as many as five attackers?"</p><p>"My best, Chuba. Aegon and Akino."</p><p>Aegon was shocked she'd allow him to leave. Though he had tried as much as possible to distance himself from her, he still spent every night lying next to her, without clothes and without her using her hold on him.</p><p>"Your Holiness," Aegon interrupted, "If both Akino and I leave your side, who will guard you if there is another attack on the caravan?"</p><p>"I truly am most safe in your capable hands, Your Honor," she grinned, as she caught herself before saying, 'my love.' "However, this task is a priority, and deserves only my best men. Akino will do well with you, and even as big as he is, he sneaks up on me as well as any assassin. You two are best fit to succeed in this, and I can trust you above all others to not only make it back to me, but to ensure no further unnecessary blood is spilled on my land."</p><p>Aegon thought of her words, and was nearly touched by them. Kiku had said she'd ordered the slaughter of the refugee village, and that was the only bit of evil he couldn't yet reconcile with his Empress. He slept with and next to her nonetheless, a sincere bond both physical and emotional forming between them, but from time to time, as he looked into the beauty of her emerald eyes, he was remembered of their power, and their malice.</p><p>"Your trust in me is not misplaced, your Holiness," <em>my love, "</em>I will succeed in this and return to you as quickly as any man can."</p><p>On the road, the tall darkening canopy on either side of them, Pal seemed a better companion than Akino, whose distant stare atop his horse was hard to decipher. He was either focusing his gaze on a spot as to not fall off the horse he seemed uncomfortable on, or inside his thick skull, there was naught but the vague awareness of his purpose, and the instincts to react when the Empress or himself were in danger. Aegon leaned toward the latter.</p><p>Paluen galloped below Aegon, clopping his hooves and stretching his legs for the first time in what seemed moons, and his rider could almost sense the joy in his steed as Pal picked up more and more speed. Akino's patched garron was no match for Aegon's mount, and though the animal tried to keep up, with the immense weight of its rider and its almost sickly frame, all Akino's horse could do was stay within the edges of the dust cloud behind the teke teke.</p><p>As the thick heavy air flowed through and over Aegon's hair and shoulders, he imagined the breezes of the ocean, and the mists from the waves crashing against the bow of a ship. He had never been one for riding, but as he continued to get used to Pal's gallop, the rock of his hips and shoulders and the rhythm of his gait, he felt riding more akin to sailing and rowing, and felt more at home atop Pal than he had in the belly of the trading galleys he recently rowed for. <em>I am free.</em></p><p>From what was explained to him before their departure, their journey would be as straight forward, both literally and figuratively, as a journey could be. The Azure Road had no major branches off of it until the Virgin's Crossing, and it was a straight shot down from where they were to where they were going. The wet dense jungle it cut through was filled mostly by monkeys, a few tigers, native deer, and more birds than anyone could have ever counted, but as far as Chuba and the Guard knew, there were no more settlements. No more people to fear.</p><p>Though the sinful comforts of the Empress' bed and body had become the most common past time for Aegon, it was good to be free of the hold she had. Though she didn't use the magic of her eyes, the magic of her soft wet lips, both sets, were almost as influentially intoxicating, and while near or next to her, it was harder and harder for him to truly be himself. He had been "the right hand" of others (namely Captain Harrus) before, so being one's willing and capable servant was not new to him.</p><p>But where his relationship with the Captain seemed at times more like father and son, knight and squire, his relationship with Khiana was different. It was more like King and concubine, except She was the King, and he the concubine. He had never heard of a man serving under a woman ruler save the stories of Rhaenyra Targaryen and her consort, the Rogue Prince Daemon Targaryen, and for all he knew, which was not much indeed, that relationship didn't turn out that well. Both died by the whims of dragons.</p><p>Leng, though, was truly different than Westeros. As different as Sothoryos was. In these "savage" lands, women had the right to power and rule. They had a say in what occurred. They mattered in the eyes of most. Westeros treated women as little more than art to admire, and vessels for legacy; bargaining chips in the Game of Thrones, and for the common girls, a night's delight, whether willing or not. In Leng, She ruled all, and as such, She ruled him. He didn't know if he liked the idea or not.</p><p>Aegon rode into the night, timing their journey to arrive at the Virgin's Crossing just before dawn. He held a torch to light Pal's way, though the steed instinctively knew where the best footing was, and Aegon was convinced the horse could travel in pitch dark. He afforded him the light of the torch anyway, but felt it was more a courtesy for the extraordinary animal than a necessity. He couldn't say the same for Akino's mount. Aegon and Pal stopped every half hour to allow them to catch up.</p><p>On the fourth occasion, Akino's horse came bounding from behind, out of breath and snorting. <em>Poor beast</em> Aegon thought. <em>We should let it have a drink and a short rest.</em></p><p>"Akino, let us bring the horses to a creek to drink. Give that poor animal a quick break. I think I can hear running water just over there. It shouldn't be too far that we couldn't find our way back." The enormous mute responded only by dismounting and grabbing the reigns of his tired horse. The blank stare carved into his face was still focused well beyond Aegon and anything that was happening in the moment, and very peculiarly, he put his torch out into the road before following with his horse behind him.</p><p>Aegon led Pal through the broad-leaved bushes and low hanging branches that bordered the road in this spot, ducking past the gentle brush of greenery, and trying not to ignite the forest with his torch. As he looked up, he could see the eyes of onlooking monkeys, he thought, and their curiosity initially seemed ominous. Then, one crept close enough down a low branch to be fully seen in the glow of the torch, and these monkeys were little larger than a cat.</p><p>As Akino followed behind, his bumbling steps and girth easily heard crunching and cracking through branches and twigs, the small ring tailed monkey in the torch light cocked his head and studied Aegon, like a maester would likely study it. There was a depth to its gaze, deeper than Akino's, and Aegon couldn't help but admire the little animal with a respectful deference. <em>Such grand creatures the gods have made. A shame people seem to rule this world.</em></p><p>After a short walk through the wood, the babbling of a brook became loud enough Aegon knew they were close. "Can't be more than a few more steps, Akino," he called, turning back to address his large companion. Aegon could hear him and his horse, still pushing straight through the brush, but he couldn't yet see him. The night's dark had fell and the entirety of the forest was shrouded in pitch black. Aegon imagined the thin legged horse following in the wake of the huge guard, and as they came into view, chuckled to see he was right. "C'mon, big fella. We're nearly there."</p><p>The hulking dolt only kept walking, his empty gaze still well past Aegon, somewhere deep into the dark of the woods.</p><p>Akino dropped his torch on the road. For what reason, Aegon didn't know. Aegon couldn't ascribe much thought to the man, and his stare became increasingly uneasy, his chiseled jaw and scarred face, half illuminated by the glow of Aegon's torch when he looked behind, and half covered by the shadow of the night.</p><p>The brook cut through the ground foliage like a crack in dishware, a crooked slit of water through the brush and vines that littered the floor beneath them. Aegon led Pal to the water's edge, and the teke teke instantly knew what to do. Pal bent his golden head and neck down and started lapping up water.</p><p>Akino's steed was much more difficult, obstinately rearing away from the running water as Aegon tried to pull it to its edge. Akino stood silently and motionless. Aegon wouldn't have minded the help, but he was not sure how to ask for it without sounding insensitive. Apparently, the lumbering buffoon was once much more mindful, until his head was thoroughly bashed in a battle. Aegon sympathized, wondering how far his own head was from becoming what Akino was when the Brindled Men were bashing his own head.</p><p>"Fucking drink, you stupid beast," Aegon mumbled to himself, pulling Akino's mount by the reigns, trying to bring the horse's mouth to the water. "Just fucking drink."</p><p>The horse reared back, and Aegon stumbled to his knee, dropping the reigns and avoiding a kick. He turned to see Akino standing above him. "Here to help me up?" Aegon asked. The guard just stood with the same blank stare, but through the darkness, Aegon was unsettled. Akino was blankly staring at him now.</p><p>With a swift and savage shift, the guard attacked Aegon, striking his head with a bare knuckled fist that felt as hard as the steel tip of a lance, flashing bright white light on impact in Aegon's mind, and vaulting him across the small creek.</p><p>Aegon nearly lost consciousness, as the blurred light of his torch, now lying near the opposite bank, looked as if it were mere fractals of a crystals, twirling and spinning around their source in rotating thin beams of orange and yellow. His head spun, his vision blurred, and he couldn't prop his body up with his weakened arms.</p><p>He could feel the brute's steps rumbling in the soft earth below, and tried with all his might and mind to stand or think, or both, but he couldn't. The blow rung his head like a harbor bell, and the high-pitched singing in his ears was still accompanied by an equally harsh painful throbbing, making his every thought and subtle movement in the mere moments since as impossible as they were frightening.</p><p>The crunch of the twigs below his approaching feet grew louder, and in another heartbeat, his pounding head was being forced into the shallow water of the creek, the blur of his vision as intense whether his eyes were closed or opened, and as he struggled with what little strength he could muster to fight for each breath, he could barely tell which way was up or down, water flowing up his nose and down his throat.</p><p>His gasps grew harder and harder to find, each subsequent forceful dunk more methodical than the last. The light from the torch had dimmed and the darkness of either the night or his impending death grew deeper and denser. A sailor, he prided himself in his long wind, able to stay underwater for minutes at a time. But this was different. The water was full of silt and mud, caking in his nostrils and gagging his mouth. The calloused meaty hands of his attacker pushed down like full bags of rice or sugar, falling from a crow's nest to his face, thumping and bruising his skull and face deeper and deeper into the water and the darkness.</p><p>The pain from the initial blow subsiding, he didn't know if he was recovering or slipping away, and his vision was now only blurred by the clouded water he was submerged in when they opened. He reached for the dirk, grabbed it, but in doing so, lost leverage against the creek bottom and was buried deep into the soft sandy bed. He tried to jab the dirk back, but Akino's full weight was on him with his face completely covered by the silt and sand of the bottom.</p><p>He pushed with his other hand, not even a jerk upward. Nothing. He just shook beneath the oaf's weight, his armed hand pinned beneath a knee, he figured, and nothing left to do but die.</p><p>
  <em>There was a terrible peace. A peaceful terror. All his guilt bubbled to melt away. His pain began fading like a painting in a pool. Nahknani. Mother.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Green swirling void of wondrous pain. Painful wonder.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>You!</em>
</p><p>A loud crunch and a whinny and the weight was off him. He pushed up, opened his mouth, and drank in air. He coughed, inhaling some silt, but he breathed and breathed again. And smiled.</p><p>Pal kicked Akino, standing above him in the creek. The patched garron had bolted skittish in the midst of violence. Pal reacted by delivering a blow of his own to Aegon's surprise attacker.</p><p>Aegon climbed to his feet, pulling himself up with his horse's reigns, seeing the Guard on his back, clutching his chest and rolling.</p><p>Aegon stumbled to the torch, his face and head covered in mud and dripping. He grabbed its handle and held it to his face, so close, he felt the wick on his nose. He closed his eyes and drank its strength. Its warmth was soothing and refreshing, until its effects faded almost instantly. Aegon opened his eyes to an extinguished torch against his wet face and dripping hair. <em>I am a fucking idiot.</em></p><p>The forest was dark. Barely any light filtered through from the thin sliver of the moon shining, and it seemed the darkest part of the evening. Aegon could barely see his hands in front of his face and completely lost sight of Akino.</p><p>Pal's reigns were still in his hands, as he reeled himself into the teke teke until he felt the animal's golden shoulders, and he rubbed them as if to thank his steed in silence.</p><p>He could hear him. Akino. His fat feet rustling directly ahead of him. Aegon couldn't tell if he had gotten up, but the brush of leaves could be nothing and no one else. Throughout the whole attack, Akino had said not one word, made not one noise, and even in receiving the crunching kick from the horse, barely exhaled audibly enough to hear, woozy or not. <em>Khiana was right. This huge son of a bitch can sneak up on you.</em></p><p>And he did, again, this time catching Aegon in the chest, following that hit with swing of his fist, connecting with Pal's ribs with a loud thump and a slight snap. The horse ran off, almost pulling Aegon off his feet before he let go of his steed, and steadied his stance, the dirk still grasped firmly in his flexed right hand.</p><p>Aegon looked into the eyes of the towering shadow before him. Before dancing back and away from the oncoming blows, he could see a tiny gleam around Akino's pupils. A green ring, bright enough to see in the darkness, framed by the shadows of the night. <em>Am I imagining this?</em></p><p>Aegon ducked under another blow, and ripped across Akino's exposed chest with the steel edge of his weapon. A reckless arm reached after him as he bounced away and under again, coming across in the opposite direct with a backhand slash. Aegon was wet with blood and Akino had barely exhaled.</p><p>Two tree trunk arms wrapped around him, pinning each arm tightly against his body. Akino lifted him up, and began to squeeze, both crushing and suffocating Aegon. He still had the dirk, but it was flat against his hip, and his wrists were pinned against the Imperial Guard's side.</p><p>Aegon turned the blade to thrust it, holding the dirk with both hands, but the weak pokes he could land barely scratched him.</p><p>Gradually, Akino's incredible grip on Aegon was beginning to take its toll. He felt he was suffocating again, his bones starting to bend to the point of cracking beneath the mammoth squeezing arms of the Guard.</p><p>Aegon turned the blade and his grip inward. He couldn't swing his arms to stab, but he thought he could pull them upward with a thrust. The dirk was over to his right side, pinned against the top of his thigh and hip.</p><p>He adjusted his wrist and pulled, slicing through himself from his hip, through his pec, to his collarbone, freeing his arms from Akino's crushing bear hug, and above his head. The red stained blade pointed down, his arms fully extended above his head, ready for a downward thrust.</p><p>Aegon was so close, he could really see Akino's eyes. The moment before he did it, he clearly saw Akino's eyes, circled in Khiana's emerald green around the dark amber of his own. <em>Is this a spell?</em></p><p>The dirk sunk down into the base of Akino's neck. Aegon didn't know if he had the strength left to crack through his skull, so he aimed for the softer meat of his prey, a section of himself he had just cut. Akino lost his hold, dropping Aegon to the creek again, the dirk still deep into neck, angled through his wind pipe.</p><p>He fell after a few moments of that blank stare, his sturdy legs eventually buckling, and his hands gently holding his wound as if it were still a surprise. Aegon had enough time to scurry away from him before he collapsed face first into the creek.</p><p>Aegon assumed his victory, and the pain from his own blade hit him for the first time. He yelped, crying out, in both victory and defeat, as his wound bled rapidly, like the flowing mouth of a river to a delta. <em>Fire, </em>he thought. <em>I need to burn this wound.</em></p><p>His own torch had gone out, and Akino had put his out before even entering the forest. <em>Its as if he planned this all along.</em></p><p>
  <em>The horse has my flint.</em>
</p><p>If he could get Pal back, he could reach into his sack and light the wick of the torch with his flint. But Pal had ran off after Akino hit him, with likely the same force as his kick. <em>Poor boy, </em>he thought. "Here, boy. C'mere boy." He whistled, kissed, and nicked for him, slowly descending to a sit, his strength failing slowly.</p><p>He sat back still whistling and calling. He almost closed his eyes when he heard the gallop of hooves. <em>Good boy. </em>Aegon sat up, pain flashing in his wound, which felt deep and burned like nothing Aegon had ever felt with his immunity to heat.</p><p>Pal ran to him, brushing up against Aegon, allowing him to feel for the bag in the darkness. He reached in, fumbled around for the flint. He felt it, pulled it out, lit the torch, and held it, healing himself, descending back down into a seat to enjoy the cool rush of the flames.</p><p>After a few minutes, the wound had mostly closed up, and he walked over to the body of his foe. "Why the fuck'd you do that, you stupid mother <em>ffff," </em>he tried to roll the body over, but it was heavy and sunk into the bottom of the creek, "fucker?"</p><p>His face was covered in dark brown muck, but his eyes were wide open, the dirk still sunk into his neck. His eyes had gone dark, even darker in the evening shadows.</p><p>
  <em>Was it her?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Did she do this?</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Akino, Akino, Akino.</p><p>But more importantly, who else?</p><p>Let me know what you think.</p><p>Thanks</p><p>HS</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Chapter 17</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>A/N</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>To those that read and enjoy my work, thank you so much! It's corny, but you, even if you've never left a comment, followed, or faved my work, are a large part of my life and I am grateful for every reader I am lucky enough to reach. That means, in a slant and indirect way, you are part of my "family" whether you like it or not.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>I apologize for not being able to update as often as I'd like. I used to be pretty good with a "chapter a week" ish time frame between updates, and it hurts me when I go weeks without finishing new content. That being said, there is a very good reason. On October 3rd, my wife and I welcomed my fourth child, a boy named Deacon James (Harwin and Aegon were never in the running for some reason lol) to the world and our family.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Therefore, writing has been tough. But no worries. I've updated a new chapter and have outline the next two, so I should be able to keep up with at least a chapter every few weeks or so, but I will never abandon you as my readers or this story and beyond.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Enjoy Chapter 17 and let me know what you think in comments or PMs, if you like. Thanks again, as always and without further ado-</strong>
</p><p>17</p><p>The horse beneath him plodded in a steady rhythm, rocking his aching body into an almost trance-like state. The attack from Akino was shocking, but what puzzled him most was the reason behind it.</p><p>
  <em>Why?</em>
</p><p>Akino had always been protective, in fact, over protective of her holiness. As blank as his mind seemed, he appeared to catch on to the two becoming extremely close. When they would change shifts, Aegon could see what he thought was jealousy in his mindless stares. <em>Maybe he wanted me dead so that only he would have her?</em></p><p><em>But his eyes</em>. During the attack, his eyes were <em>hers</em>, or at least a small ring of them was. The glowing, swirling green around his hate filled irises meant to Aegon that each blow was just as much from Khiana as Akino, and the hands forcing his face underwater to extinguish his flame forever, were both the meaty mitts of the brute, and the dainty ones of the Goddess that had touched him so tenderly the night before.</p><p>
  <em>What did I do? When did she turn on me?</em>
</p><p>The pain from the cut he inflicted on himself didn't hurt nearly as badly as his betrayed heart. His limp, resigned body bounced atop Pal's saddle, his mind not nearly as interested in the pitch black forest as it should be.</p><p>On all of the previous nights, he shared passionate physical connections with her like he had only ever felt with Nahknani, and though he still shuttered each time he remembered the faces of the innocent she very likely could have ordered to be slaughtered, she had a lingering hold on him still fervently burning in his heart, based not on the magic of her sorcery, but the time they'd shared, and the respect he had for her being and beauty.</p><p>
  <em>She must've grown tired of me.</em>
</p><p>As Aegon struggled to understand her true intent, he further contemplated the greater conspiracy as a whole, and the impending war that would engulf the island in bloodshed and more slaughter.</p><p>The sorcery. The words of the painted skull as he died. The dreams. Everything felt off. The green eyed beauty even forgot their first time ever meeting in the Dragon Pool. He had mentioned it multiple times in passing and the beautiful young woman not once understood or remembered what he was referencing.</p><p>It was as if she wasn't there at all.</p><p>
  <em>What is this? What is all of this? Why attack the magistrate? Why kill Khissara? Why kill Shinsou? Why march south?</em>
</p><p>It was beginning to look like everything occurring was all related, and that the questions he was asking were almost the right ones.</p><p>Kaono had thought out loud to him before they parted ways, "Why kill Pro-Leg members of the government?" If it were truly the followers of the Old Ones responsible, why kill those that advocate for Legs?</p><p>Aegon answered before that it was because of their stations, not their beliefs, that they were targeted, but he wasn't so sure anymore. Something more sinister was happening, and he still didn't know what yet.</p><p>The moon above barely lit the path, and only accented the silhouettes of the surrounding trees on each side, making his trot atop Pal down the Azure Road as fearful as a walk could be. Each side called and snarled back at the other, with a cacophony of sounds ranging from the buzzing of insects, to the occasional groan of tigers, but Aegon was fixated on the betrayal, and its eventual aftermath, unconcerned with the wild around them.</p><p>His trustworthy horse continued down the Azure Road south, as they had with Akino, to complete their intended mission for some reason. He tried to rationalize it by thinking of Kaono and his safety, who was to meet her Holiness at the Virgin's Crossing as well, but he knew it was a stretch at best. If he had any sense, he'd lose both parties in the forest and leave Leng for good. There was nothing for him here but more death and suffering.</p><p>But he couldn't. He felt honor bound, for some reason, to understand the nature of the underlying conspiracy plaguing this land, and ascertain the perpetrators behind it. He took the attack on the magistrate personally, looking into the eyes of the tall red robed assailant in many dreams since that night and vowing to bring him justice. The smug look on his face, the queer resistance to joining the fight, the mostly smooth dark head, and the glowing amulet around his neck all still haunted Aegon, and he wasn't yet ready to give up finding him.</p><p>Even if the Empress wanted him dead.</p><p>Serving her mission still, despite potentially being a target for her wrath, gave Aegon a potential for answers. It gave him a purpose. It gave him something to keep him from the guilt and the pain of his recent past, and his nonexistent ties to his own lineage.</p><p>He never wanted to be Harwin of the Harbor again. He wanted to live, and if it came to it, die Aegon Velaryon, Drahkness Kahn. And though he still hated her deep in his heart, he knew the Red Priestess led him here, to Leng, to his purpose. His destiny.</p><p>His skirmish with Akino would have only slightly delayed his progress to the Virgin's Crossing, and as far as he could tell, within an hour or two he would be upon the place he was meant to scout for her holiness. With all that was happening in and around the traveling party, he would have been more surprised if the abandoned settlement had no threats than if all of Southern Leng awaited her there.</p><p>Though he wanted to proceed with a plan, he similarly wished for a fight. It would be easier to die fighting than to live and explain to her Holiness why Akino didn't return with him. And easier still to avoid the inevitable death sentence that had most likely already been levied against him. For half a heartbeat once the settlement was in view from a distance, he thought to charge headlong into the settlement's center, swords drawn and yelling the battle cry of his people.</p><p>He couldn't think of what that would be though, and a sorrow kept him from enacting his glorious folly, leaving him alive and alert enough to consider a plan.</p><p>From the distance, he could see the running water of the river below the deserted civilization, descending down from the nearby mountain and flowing rapidly past the abandoned settlement. Crumbling stone structures were strewn about, like the fallen bodies of soldiers on a battlefield, evidence of recent life and recent death, and now overgrown by the vines and broad green leaves of the forest. The only structure that still appeared functional was the broad stone bridge the stretched over the water, wide enough for the traveling party to cross three carts abreast. It too though was corroded with the climbing green fingers of the wild, wrapping ivy and vines around its columns and chipping away at the smooth veneer, exposing a crumbling visage that resembled grey scale.</p><p>Aegon knew little of the Virgin's Crossing, other than the 'Virgin' referred to either the fresh water from the melting mountain caps that comprised the Lion Claw River or the Lengii tale of the Virgin, a woman taken by the Old Ones and the first Lengii to be taught their sacred magic. He also knew that the once inhabited settlement had been sacked and abandoned some twenty or so years ago during the time of the Jackal's Rebellious Reign in these parts of wild central Leng. The entire settlement's inhabitants had been brought west and sold to slavers, and though some survived and returned to the island, not enough returned to the Crossing to rebuild or regroup. The ruins remained rubble and the forest moved back in.</p><p>Though the Azure Road cut through the Crossing as it always had, the forest on either side enveloped the cobbled path and would provide cover if he decided to sneak into the heart of it to search for whatever foes potentially awaited him. He'd have to tie Pal up though, despite how effective his back up had been in his fight with Akino. <em>Do I really? He seems to know what I'm thinking. Maybe I could just tell him to stay on the outskirts?</em></p><p>He decided to leave Pal just outside ear shot of the ruined city, loosely hitched to a tree. If he called for the teke teke, he'd be able to pull free, but the reins where around the tree enough to keep the horse from wandering. He hoped he'd stay quiet enough to remain hidden.</p><p>Aegon scrambled cautiously through the brush, inching his way towards the silent and foreboding ruins. The whisper of the breeze above him and the rustle of the insects below were the only sounds he could hear, and the only life he could identify.</p><p>Closing in on the destroyed settlement's center, he peered into the vacant streets through the branches of a bush, scanning his entire periphery trying to locate any threats. His eyes traced the fallen stone structures, focusing on each window opening, each collapsed room, each crack and crevice. He scanned for what seemed like an hour. Nothing. No one.</p><p>He silently skulked past a clearing and behind the remnants of what looked to be a tower. The moss covered stone was cool to the touch, even though the intense heat of the forest was still at its strongest, and the moisture in the air had gotten even thicker this far south. The whistling breeze picked up the closer to the settlement he crept, and now, within it, he could hear the wind above him swirling in an audible whine.</p><p>Crouching for cover between each bound and leap through the scattered ruins, he searched and snuck through, finding nothing but cool lichen covered rubble, remnants of structures forsaken to the growing green, and a once viable settlement now reduced to wasted attempts at civilization.</p><p>He stood up, unafraid of being seen. Nothing had made its presence known, yet anyway, and anything that still lived here seemed to be less interested in him than staying out of sight. The cobbled streets of the Crossing, overgrown with the roots of juvenile trees and long green grasses and weeds, rose and fell like the shape of the ocean, though stagnant, and fought the forest to stay in place. He walked the streets of the city to its center. A fountain and statue were featured centrally in the square, decrepit as they were, still standing despite the destruction around them.</p><p>The figure in the middle of the non functioning fountain reminded him of Fishfoot in White Harbor. The lichen covered face with pores in the stone opened like pockmarks from a sickness, and his outstretched arm and general posture were reminiscent of the figure from his home. The features of his face were too worn from the sack or time to recognize, and he was missing an arm and a leg, broken and shattered in pieces in the dry fountain below. His body wore armor, like Jugo in Leng Ma, and his gaze and arm pointed south.</p><p>"It's a shame you'll be forgotten, my friend. It looks like you deserved to be remembered." Aegon said to the statue in the common tongue.</p><p>"He'll never be forgotten." An elder voice replied in the common tongue. "You must be the Dragon King. We've been expecting you."</p><p>Aegon turned, arming himself with his twin blades to see nothing but ruins and wilderness. <em>I heard a voice as clearly as I can see there's no one here. I'm not losing my wits, am I?</em></p><p>"You cannot see, but yes. Indeed you do hear. Relax, my boy, I mean you no harm as of yet," the voice replied to Aegon's thoughts as if he said them aloud.</p><p>"Who are you? Where are you? What sorcery is this?" Aegon kept turning, kept searching. Yet still, he saw nothing.</p><p>"Just as a beautiful bird has flown into your soul, fixating her green gaze to control you, we too can worm into your mind. We have seen much of what has passed and some of what's to come, but you are the blinding white light in our future that perplexes us."</p><p>Aegon struggled to understand what was happening, why it was happening, and if he should flee. The voice was calm to the point of calming. It spoke softly, but stern. It was smooth, but low. It was sincere to the point of sounding friendly, but its deep bass filled tone spoke to a hidden power beneath, brimming and bubbling under its surface.</p><p>"Who is Us?"</p><p>"We serve those you seek to destroy. We live to keep those thought long dead living. We are the ones you think to seek, but seek in bad faith. None of what has happened is our work, and all that will happen is according to their plan."</p><p>"Why are you being so cryptic? What purpose does this game serve if you wish clear your name of guilt?"</p><p>"Who among us has claimed that as our wish? We only know of what is being blamed on us and that we have taken no part in it. Nonetheless, we welcome the coming conflict. We welcome the chance to rise from the depths."</p><p>Aegon felt a cool breeze rush over his shoulders, even cooler against his sweating skin. A chill from the base of his neck trickled down his spine, and the hair on his arms began to stand above goose prickled skin as a few leaves from the surrounding ground brushed past him, gently landing and falling off of him.</p><p>"You're not of this land, dragonseed. Nothing here is for you and those like you. Your dragon blood is all that's saved you until now," the voice warned in a more foreboding and solemn tone. Aegon could feel the ground rumble around him softly. "But we do not use fire, Aegon Velaryon. If you are to face us, you'll need do so as just a man."</p><p>The brisk moving air felt like breath on the back of his neck. He kept turning to find the speaker, and continued to only see the ruins around him, and the statue, stationary before him, his sole corroded arm reaching behind Aegon. Or for him.</p><p>"You serve the Old Ones then?" Aegon asked, trying to plan an escape from a foe he couldn't locate to flee away from. <em>Which way is away?</em></p><p>He was in the center of the ruined settlement, and the voice seemed centralized wherever he tried to sneak. Staying low, he crept over cold stone and chunks of mortar trying to stay silent amongst the mix destroyed buildings and new growth.</p><p>It was as if below each step was the duality of destruction and rebirth the ruins of this place seemed to exemplify. The forest, once conquered by man, reclaimed its land, growing callously over and through the once formidable strong hold and symbol of civilization. Ironically, the down fall of this place was the wild nature of man; the instinctual need for humans to destroy each other as much as they destroy all else.</p><p>Aegon heard only rustling brush underneath from something moving or scurrying away. The voice still hadn't answered his direct question, but something made Aegon knew it was so. <em>The Old Ones</em>. Aegon crept over rubble to see if he could identify the speaker by its movement. All he could see was the still swaying shrubbery below.</p><p>Spinning, trying to find the voice, and beginning to fluster, Aegon's breath exhaled as a visible mist. The air chilled from the heat of the jungle to the cold of White Harbor. He embraced himself as to warm himself, but the cold was bone deep, and the foreboding voice was just as frigid.</p><p>"Can't you find us? We're right here." The voice grew louder, ringing inside his head as if spoken just inches from him. He still couldn't see, but it was almost as if he could feel its voice in his head.</p><p>The leather bound handles of his swords became almost too cold to touch, the steel beneath the grip dangerously cold to the point it would stick to his skin even through the bindings.</p><p>"Just behind you," it said. Aegon turned to see nothing but the rustling forest floor. "No, here." He turned again. Still nothing but brush. <em>I'm losing my mind.</em></p><p>"You aren't losing your mind," it said, answering his thoughts, "yet. But we are so happy to oblige."</p><p>He felt contact from something cool and slick on his neck. He jumped nearly out of his skin and swatted at whatever it was instinctively. He turned to look at his shoulder as his hand connected with a moist but firm . . . something.</p><p>In his vision for less than a moment, a viscous brown tendril, as thick as a large branch, but ribbed and mucousy like an earthworm, dropped from his shoulder to the forest floor, receding into the foliage and out of sight. He knelt down cautiously, disgusted as much as he was startled, to see if he could find whatever it was to identify it.</p><p>The foliage around him rustled again, as if the vines and branches beneath were alive and moving. He turned, still looking for the creature that he brushed away, and dug through the leaves and twigs on the ground where it fell to find it.</p><p>A slick touch to his leg made him jump again. Another wet brown tendril wrapped around his ankle. He shuttered and shook, more frightened than he'd ever been, by a disgustingly enigmatic entity he could barely begin to describe.</p><p>Like a snake, or a leech, it stretched and wrapped around him as he tried to pry it off, using the edge of his right blade, cutting it into two separately moving parts. The upper half inched up his breeches until he dropped his one sword to grab it and throw it off of him.</p><p>His skin began to crawl, itching inside himself from the creepy creature, and as he felt its wetness on his palm as he gripped it, his immediate instinct was to throw it and release it as quickly as he could. It re-wrapped itself around his hand and continued to climb as he shook his hand and arm violently, wildly, trying desperately to get it off. He dropped his other sword to pull the dirk and pry it off.</p><p>The dirk sliced underneath it and he flung it back to the forest floor, but as he did, the second half of the creature began to squeeze his leg and climb back up towards his waist. As the other half moved, more tendrils reached up and out for him, and the moving brush beneath him was coated hundreds, maybe thousands, of viscous brown, wormlike creatures all reaching for him, wrapping around him, and squeezing him intensely.</p><p>He thought to scream. He thought to light a fire. But as he tried to continue to think, more and more wet and wormy limbs either wrapped around him or reached for him, expelling out from the pores in the rubble, extending from the trunks of trees, and emerging from the soft soil below, until the whole of the ruined city looked to be a tapestry of slimy woven creatures, and in a panic, his mind almost faded into full and encompassing fear.</p><p>Stepping and pulling away from the coiling grasps of the creatures as much as he could, he tried to find the exit to this crawling horrific nightmare. Each moist arm he broke free from was replaced by more as his steps found new footing. They were around his thighs, his arms, covered over the swords, and pulling at the dirk, causing it to begin to slip from his grasp in a thick slime.</p><p>He forced the dirk in its sheath and reached down for the swords. He found them as more of the creatures climbed up his arms and around his chest and shoulders. They wormed their way under his leather armor, and it felt as if wet fingers were beginning to squeeze around him from every angle.</p><p>Black blades swung as fast as he could to the sound of slicing meat. Their form was easily cut, but it just divided the being into two new individuals. Each slash achieved nothing, and each movement became more and more difficult with the increasing number of squeezing tentacles wrapped around him.</p><p>"Remain still. We will not harm you. It will be no different than your Empress, controlling your mind with wet powerful magic." The voice became voices, as hundreds echoed the original voice, speaking into his mind all at once.</p><p>Struggling to keep moving as best as he could, Aegon winced as the leech like creatures began anchoring into his exposed skin and beneath his leather armor with hooks that expelled out from their slimy brown mass with painful piercing curved spines. He was covered to the point where only his face remained bare, but reaching, climbing, twirling limbs were creeping up and trying to force themselves towards his mouth and eyes.</p><p>Trying not to panic was harder than it ever had been for Aegon. Facing Niisnihk was easy. <em>Avoid the big guy</em>. So was swinging onto a burning boat to face an entire crew. <em>Just keep your sword slicing</em>. Facing Zlatan's army was simple. <em>Unleash your rage</em>. This foe was altogether different in every way; unbeatable by sheer force or will. His blatantly futile attempts frightened him more each time they failed, and as the oozing brown limbs pushed against his lips, he almost opened them to scream with a gut wrenching horror.</p><p>Across the city center, he saw the statue. The viscous liquid began running down Aegon's forehead, as a ribbed brown arm began to wrap around his skull and sunk a spine into his temple. No blood trickled from his wound, but the liquid around the leech like creature seeped into him, causing a subtle paralysis, from either the fear or the effects.</p><p>He saw the statue, pointing at him. The forest around it, and its brown tentacles swarmed the fountain's empty basin and rushed up the statue, wriggling life into it, forming a new brown ribbed leg, and new brown ribbed arm, and ice blue eyes, glowing from the corroded face.</p><p>It stepped toward him, as real as anything could seem. He thought initially it could be a hallucination, but his mind was as clear as it had been since being taken by Khiana, and the statue nonetheless was walking toward him.</p><p>"Submit to us, Dragon. We will use this strength to our benefit, and rid this land of the Ancient."</p><p>One stone foot stepped, knocking against the fountain. The other worm foot followed, leaving a visible skid where it planted. The statue's stone arm remained pointed at him, as the other brown ribbed arms wormed back in forth, swaying as it moved closer.</p><p>He closed his eyes as disgusting creatures stretched across his face to push into them and the statue stepped closer and closer.</p><p>"Let us in, Dragon. Let us inside you."</p><p>Suddenly, a warm, cooling rush flowed over and by him, engulfing the surrounding forest in white hot flame. Smoke and ash swirled in the whining breeze, as the creatures all around and covering him sizzled, screeched, and withered to husks and dust. The flames sunk into each anchored spine in his skin, expelling the spines and healing him fully. He breathed in the hot, yet cooling, inferno with a relief he'd never felt, and the horror of the previous moments almost erased into a warming tingling bliss he reveled in, lying against the charred ground, looking up into the white flames and the swirling ash and smoke.</p><p>He couldn't tell how long he laid there, mesmerized and soothed by the flames. When he broke from his trance, it was to the face of a red robed dark skinned man, standing above him looking down.</p><p>He looked to others traveling with him and said, "He's a member of the guard. Somehow, he's still breathing."</p><p>"Thank you for saving me," Aegon said.</p><p>"Thank you? We were sure you'd die." The man raised his staff and struck Aegon in the head, strike after strike after strike. Aegon remembered his beating by the Brindled Men, and laughed.</p><p>
  <em>At least I'm alive.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>For now.</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Hope you liked it. Tune in for more soon!</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Chapter 18</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>18</p><p>Aegon woke bound by his hands to a tall stake behind him with his outstretched legs in front of him similarly tied. Around him were a collection of red robed men, neither Yit or Leg, watching him intently, seated on smooth stones in a half circle around him.</p><p>His face was only slightly bruised. The blows that knocked him unconscious must have slightly healed in the aftermath of the flames, because as hard and as frequent as he was hit, he should have felt like he did that day and night in Sothoryos.</p><p>At least I'm still alive</p><p>He thought to test his restraints and see if he could escape, but the men watching him, their eyes fixed on his, were diligent and armed with the same bow staffs used to knock him out. As he woke, he simply raised his head to meet their gaze. Though captive, he felt little fear.</p><p>"Jhat, Jhat," one yelled to the center of their camp. It was early evening, maybe just past dusk, and Aegon looked to see he was surrounded by forest and a crude encampment. A fire was burning in the middle of the circular arrangement of animal hide tents, and there looked to be no more than thirty men, all wearing the same red robes from the attack on the Imperial Progress. "He's come to."</p><p>A man, shrouded in shadows, strode from the fire to where Aegon was tied up. He wore red, like the others, except he wore a red cloak with a high collar that extended up above his head. He wore died red wool everywhere else, and as he moved closer, Aegon could see his face was tattooed in the markings of a slave, or something. It may have been a slave tattoo that was then covered over with another tattoo of flames, but in the darkness cast with the fire behind him, it was hard to tell.</p><p>When the cloaked man reached Aegon, he stood and posed, as if presenting himself. An unimposing figure, standing with perfect posture but a poorly muscled frame, he shot his fiercest glare at Aegon for a few silent moments before addressing his captive. "We have seized you for what you've done to our village, fiend. Tell us where the caravan is most vulnerable and we will allow you a quick death."</p><p>With the fire burning behind him, and the moon shining above, it was hard to see his face, but through the shadows, his two glaring eyes glowed white, hot and bright with pain and fury, and Aegon felt both shame and guilt despite not being the actual culprit to blame for the man's loss.</p><p>"I will tell you what you want, but I mean you and your people no harm."</p><p>"You wear the color of her guard. Do you not serve her?"</p><p>"It's . . . complicated, but I do not condone her killing the innocent."</p><p>"Were you there? Were you present in the slaughter of our people? Our wives and children?"</p><p>Aegon bowed in shame, refusing to answer. Even though he fought for them, he still felt the guilt of his failure to save them. He was too weak. Useless. And though he was not to blame for even a drop of blood, he felt resigned to accept punishment nonetheless.</p><p>"You were there, weren't you?"</p><p>Aegon still refused to answer, looking up at his accuser to bravely accept his fate.</p><p>"I'd burn you in the name of our Lord, but my men tell me you were unburnt when they cleared the forest of the Elden." He composed himself and readied his stance, saying, "As a priest, I have taken vows to do no harm," he coiled a fist and struck Aegon's face with all his might, stumbling to his knees after connecting. Aegon ate the hit, its force barely turning his jaw. The priest was not a fighter. "But an exception can be made for you and those of your order."</p><p>"Jhat, no!" a shrill and tiny voice cried out from behind the red cloaked priest as he coiled for another attempt at Aegon. "That is him. That is the man on fire!"</p><p>A small figure hurried over from the fire, cloaked in the shadows of the night. The frame was that of a child, no older than Aegon when he was orphaned. The priest turned toward the child, lifting a torch to see. It was the boy from the village. The boy he fought for. The brother of the girl Hanse cut in two.</p><p>His hair was just as messy atop his little head and his brown eyes were wide with desperation. "Jhat, that is the man. The man on fire," he kept repeating, to which the priest turned back to Aegon with shame on his face.</p><p>"Did you save this young one, ser?" the priest asked Aegon in Malhada.</p><p>"I thought I hadn't. I thought all were lost."</p><p>"That's him, Jhat," the boy said as he finally reached them, panting from running as quickly as he could. "That's him."</p><p>"I see," the priest said, patting the boy on his head. He turned back to Aegon and asked, "If I remove you from these bindings, can I trust that you will not harm us? If you are who this boy told us about, then you are no mere guard among the wretched."</p><p>"You can trust me. I will do no harm to anyone that doesn't seek to harm me first."</p><p>"Are you the man this boy speaks of? The man on fire?"</p><p>I've never been called that before, but "Aye."</p><p>"Untie him, men. We have royalty in our midst."</p><p>Once untied and recognized by the young boy, Aegon was cordially invited, with apologies from all that greeted him, to eat at the fire with the group. It had been some time since his last meal, and he was hungry and eager to join them for what looked to be some sort of local deer like animal roasting over a spit.</p><p>"Where's my horse," he asked one man who they called Saeng-Gang.</p><p>"He's hitched to a tree over there. Stubborn bugger, that one. Took three of us and all our strength just to get him here."</p><p>Good boy, Aegon thought, then he brought the teke teke an apple, patted him calm, and left him tied with the other horses to sleep. "You've done good, boy."</p><p>When he returned to join the meal, all thirty or so men and what looked to be a few survivors from the village, Jhat the Red Priest was standing before the fire and giving some fervent sermon. "And by his ever burning light, our Lord has granted us a champion, kissed and saved by the flames himself, Fire and our Fight made flesh. The Elden held his mind in their clutches, but the cleansing flames of R'hllor have brought him back from the precipice of the Old Ones, and back here, to finish the fight he started in the village the Imposter put to the sack, sicking her wicked and vile dogs on our innocent with no remorse; no mercy. It is only by the grace of our Lord that those among you that were there managed to escape."</p><p>Jhat spoke as most priests did, with drama and fervor. A passion for what he believed was as evident as the burning flames tattooed on his face, and as the fire flickered behind him, it gave him an orange glow, which only added to the aura of divinity he was trying to evoke.</p><p>"Here," he said, pointing to Aegon as he returned back to the circle. "The Prince promised to us to end the agents of the Great Other, and restore Leng to the people." The crowd all looked at Aegon with awe, akin to the looks he received after defeating Niisnihk in Sothoryos. The people didn't chant, but he could see the same look of deliverance. The treatment of a hero. Not again.</p><p>As in Sothoryos, he knew he was no group's hero. He knew he was not enough to single handedly change the fate of this people. But, like Sothoryos, he knew he couldn't let injustice stand. He couldn't idly do nothing. But what is it they think I can do?</p><p>Aegon still hadn't yet fully come to terms with Akino's attack and what that meant for his relationship with Khiana. Does her magic still have a hold of me if I still think to try to reconcile with a woman that's killed innocents, plans to start a war, and ordered to have her brute kill me most like?</p><p>He walked through the crowd of admirers, thanking him, for well, nothing. Even though he stood to fight for their people, he only managed to save a few, it seemed. Gracious arms clutched his shoulders. Appreciating hands brushed against him, and all of them stood from their seats as if to honor him. Even more shame welled within him than when he witnessed the slaughter, as the flashes of the killings he couldn't stop began to flood his mind with anguish and regret.</p><p>"I was able to do nothing! I was stopped, bound, and brought back to serve the Empress, still. In this moment, I still serve her. I am not the hero you make me to be."</p><p>The raucous praise changed instantly to a shocked silence. The same eyes that smiled at him, now widened with disbelief. He could feel a sadness pull at his own face, and the eyes of those around him seemed to sense it too. Welling emotions from all present seemed to pulse with each heartbeat, still vulnerable from the trauma they all seemed to share.</p><p>From out of the crowd, still shrouded in the shadows of the fire, the little boy he saved stepped to him, extending his own thin arm and frail hand to comfort Aegon. "You saved me. You saved them. You knew it was wrong and you fought for us," he said, looking up at Aegon with his big brown eyes. "We don't blame you for the one's we've lost. We know you tried." The boy paused as Aegon's face began to wilt. "It's okay to cry." Then the boy hugged him tightly.</p><p>Was it? Was it really? Was it okay for him to mourn those that he had a small hand in killing? Was he absolved of their deaths because of his failed attempt to save them? Was he worth this boy's sympathy? This boy's empathy? Did he really deserve the chance to mourn?</p><p>As his head spun with questions, his heart sank, melted, and he wept. He allowed the grief to rush from him. All of it. The grief of his losses. The grief of his failures. The grief of his selfish mistakes. And the overwhelming grief that haunted him with each new move, as he struggled to find a reason for his life to continue on when so many others had fallen. So many better, stronger, kinder, gentler, and more suited for leadership than he could ever be. And he wept, clutching the boy he saved in return with a tight embrace of his own, not knowing exactly why he did, but knowing it needed to be done.</p><p>After his introduction to the group and a chance to eat and drink, Aegon stayed by the fire well into the night. He was joined by a few groups of men still chatting about nothing in particular, near him, but not with him, and though he didn't feel alone, he didn't feel a part of them. The group was kind to him, but still hesitated to engage in most direct conversation, either uncomfortably unfamiliar or blatantly fearful of him.</p><p>He met a few of the men and spoke briefly with even more, trying to laugh at jests and remain cordial, but even after the gathering and the fire began to die down, Aegon was still despondent with his mind on those that were not present; those that had been lost that day to Hanse and the Imperial Guard.</p><p>Deep in contemplation, with his head in his hands and his elbows resting against his knees, the red priest startled him with a friendly pat to the back, not much softer than his attempt at a punch. "If it isn't the man on fire!" he yelled, deep in his cups of soku. "That was certainly a touching display of humanity, before. I thank you and the boy for being so genuine."</p><p>Aegon didn't know how to respond to that. He almost ignored the comment as the priest continued, "I can still sense the sadness within you, which is for the good, in my book. None that witness the atrocities of man should live on forgetting it."</p><p>"What do you want, priest?" Aegon asked, not trying to sound as nasty as he came off.</p><p>"You see there," he said, staring into the waning flame of the camp's fire.</p><p>"What, the flames?"</p><p>"Yes, but not just the flames themselves. Do you see what's in them? What they show?" The priest grinned gleefully as if he were explaining a secret.</p><p>Aegon looked, perplexed at what the priest was getting at. In his time spent with the Red Priestess, he remembered her looking into the flames like this, but she never asked him to. "I see a crackling flame is all."</p><p>"Aye. 'Tis true the flames are difficult to read, but there is a story there. For me, your story."</p><p>"What do you see?" Aegon asked.</p><p>"Visions. I've seen visions. Not since you've arrived, but the flames tell me their stories and I try my best to interpret them."</p><p>"I don't have the patience for mummers and their stories, priest-"</p><p>"Call me, Jhat."</p><p>"I don't have the patience for bullshit Jhat." He barked. "I mean no disrespect as I have seen the power of your god or gods, and I respect your beliefs as yours to interpret, but some things are as they are. Fire is fire. Darkness is darkness. And all the wonders and mysteries of the world aren't always for us to understand."</p><p>"Aye, but is fire just fire? Do you not survive the heat of the flames? Do you not heal from them? If you can benefit in these ways as a non-believer, why can I not receive messages then?"</p><p>The priest had a point, and as the red priestess had said, Aegon's purpose was to be here, now, for whatever reasons the gods deemed it so.</p><p>"What do you see then? What of these visions and why tell me of them?"</p><p>"The Lord of Light has promised deliverance from the agents of the Great Other. The Old Ones are his creatures. Same as the Elden."</p><p>"The Elden, as you say, were those slimy things?"</p><p>"Yes. The Elden are lost souls whose physical bodies have shriveled up, but their souls remain, bound to the land, to serve the Old Ones."</p><p>"So their souls still remain even after their bodies have gone?" Aegon said, unconvinced.</p><p>"Yes. The human soul is among the most powerful entities in nature. The Old Ones use and consume human souls. It is all that's kept them around since Khiara destroyed the Temple Entrance," he replied, taking another gulp of his soku skin.</p><p>"You believe I am this promised deliverer? How am I to deliver you? Burning the souls still left? Is that what your lord wants of me?"</p><p>"Simply burning them all would not provide a solution, or at least a permanent one. Our issues lie not with the damned," he hiccupped, "but with the ones who have damned them."</p><p>"How can a mere man fight or win against gods or deities? How do you expect to be delivered?"</p><p>"That's why I asked you to see into the flames. When the Lord's will for mine own life, mine own journey is ready for me, I just simply look into the flames and listen to the message. I wanted to see if your fate would be as mine has been, a story from our Lord."</p><p>Aegon looked to the dying flame. A spark popped and a glowing orange ember crackled. The beauty of the amber, gold, and crimson dancing to the rhythm of life was as mesmerizing a sight any tired, lonely, and saddened soul could witness. But there were no visions. No flashes of faces. No stories other than the love story of heat and light, the random variation of warmth and energy vacillating between a bright white and yellow, and a mellow orange and red. Nothing that could be interpreted. Nothing that could inform.</p><p>"I see fire. Nothing else."</p><p>"You will see in time. Maybe I'm just special." The priest slapped Aegon's back once more, smiling from ear to ear. "Before I leave, I have just one more question for you, and this is a matter of all our lives."</p><p>"What, Jhat?"</p><p>"Is your mind clear? Are you influenced by any queer voices or unusual feelings?"</p><p>Aegon thought quickly, but hard on his question. Am I influenced? Does she still hold me under her spell? As he thought, he tried to feel hatred for the woman responsible for the deaths of so many, for the woman who ordered his own death by the hands of Akino most like. He tried. He couldn't hate her. He still sympathized with the goodness in her, and the connection they shared. Is it her magic, or my naïve stupidity?</p><p>"My mind is clear," he responded confidently, hiding his inner conflict.</p><p>"The Elden are unstoppable once they take hold. If you are as good a man as you're being celebrated as, know this: Within the next two hours or so, if the Elden do have a hold of you, you will unwillingly and brutally murder every man, woman, and child in this camp. You will witness each horrific death at your own hands even more helplessly than when you were bound, and upon completing their work, the Elden will slip into your head and force you to release them, with whatever means possible."</p><p>"I am safe from the Elden, Jhat. My mind is clear of their influence. If anything changes, I will take my own life to save you and yours."</p><p>"Good. Let's hope you don't have to. The fire cleanses them, but I've never brought home a body once covered with them."</p><p>The priest turned to leave pivoting towards what Aegon assumed was his tent: the smallest and most tattered. "How do you know so much of the Elden?" Aegon asked, curious as to how one comes to know of the other worldly.</p><p>"Experience, my friend. My brother was possessed by them. He annihilated my whole village when I was just a boy. There were moments just before he took his own life in which he was clear enough to describe the horror, screaming as it were to no one in particular. I was out of his reach, sprawled up a tree, but I could hear and see it all. He clawed his face off trying to rip them out of his head. He died after smashing his skull on the trunk of the tree below where I had hidden. I saw hundreds of those things slither out of his open head. I can still hear the crunching of bones at night. Since, I've been trying to help our people avoid them as much as possible, hoping and praying to our Lord for an answer."</p><p>The visceral imagery described by the priest instantly haunted Aegon and brought his mind to thoughts of what could have been if it weren't for the red robed men that intervened in his possession. It was also shocking to hear Jhat say something so horrific and gruesome as calmly as he was able to. "How old were you? How old was he?"</p><p>"I was but a boy. Couldn't have been much more than eight or nine. He was only four and ten."</p><p>"I'm sorry for you loss," Aegon said reflexively, not knowing what to say, holding back questions he thought to insensitive to ask.</p><p>"For the first half of my life since, I was sorry too. Not only did I lose my brother that day, but I lost everyone. Everything. Now, as I look back, I understand that my pain, my suffering, is what has led me here: to today; where our people are on the precipice of extinction and only I know the way to survive."</p><p>"And how is that?"</p><p>"Souls, my friend. Souls," the priest drank the rest of his skin of soku, finishing it all at once, gulping and gulping as some dripped down his chin. "But that is all for tonight. I will tell you more," he belched, "when I am in better shape. Finding you, for us, has been a great victory. If you wish to see more, know more," he belched again, "look to the flames." Then he stumbled away, belching once more before falling into his tattered tent and out of view.</p><p>Aegon slept as well as any could in his situation. The priest's words swam around in his head for so long, he didn't remember falling asleep. He drifted off by the fire, staring into it, pondering the words of red cloaked man and what his next move would be. Exhausted with a minor pain still in his temple from the beating he took, he couldn't see anything in the flames, and he couldn't plan anything for the next day.</p><p>As the first rays of the sun shone down onto his face the next morning, he popped up off the forest floor in a near panic. The Empress. She is coming here and expects me back.</p><p>Aegon rose and quickly scurried to the red priest's tent, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He pulled back the entrance flap to see no one was there. The priest was already awake.</p><p>Standing and scanning the camp, all else was quiet, and the priest was nowhere to be seen.</p><p>The group decided to make camp just downstream from the crossing, near the bank of the river. Aegon ran to where he heard the running water to see if the man had decided to bathe or gather drinking water for his people since he was nowhere to be seen in the camp. The grasses and shrubs were damp with morning dew, as Aegon brushed through the green growth that provided a barrier around the tents and campfire, following the babble of the running water.</p><p>Jhat was there, seated on a smooth black stone just off the water's edge. Flowing rapids crested with white caps crashed as the water turned around slight bends, rushing and flowing east with a strong current and a serene and pleasing sound. The priest was cross legged, his eyes closed, and his mind in deep contemplation. He didn't see or notice Aegon as he approached at first, until the snap of a twig alerted him, though he remained still and focused. "Good morning, friend. What brings you to me so early and so out of breath?"</p><p>Aegon didn't realize he was breathing heavily, but he moved and continued to think with urgency. "The Empress and her traveling party make their way here as we speak. You and your people must go."</p><p>"Where?"</p><p>Aegon didn't understand. "I don't know. Away from here. Hide in the wood, stay hidden for a few days. She will surely send out more men to find you and your people. This time, she'll wipe you all out."</p><p>"But we have you."</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"You are our promised Prince. You are our deliverance. Did you see it in the flames?"</p><p>Aegon flushed with guilt, anxiety, and shock. "No. There is no message for me in the flames and I cannot defeat her whole army myself. If you stay here, whether I protect you or not, you will all die."</p><p>"You will protect us, won't you? We did save you. In fact, if we hadn't have saved you, you would have killed the entire caravan anyway. Maybe we shouldn't have."</p><p>Aegon didn't know how to answer. As much sympathy and gratitude as he had for this group of refugees, he still couldn't face Khiana. At least not with force. At least not as final.</p><p>"My thanks to you and your men for saving me, but you did, in fact, mean to kill me. Then, you were to torture and later kill me upon getting answers. It wasn't until the boy's words that you even recognized me as this prince you speak of. You only became my ally when you realized my power."</p><p>"Isn't that how all alliances work?"</p><p>"Enough. You and your people must go. Even if I stayed and fought to protect you, we do not stand a chance. She brings with her hundreds of guards, and thousands of people. She means for this progress to end in battle. She's called more men from Leng Ma to join her here. If I stand to fight for you, I will lose and your people will die."</p><p>"Then there is another way, isn't there?"</p><p>Aegon thought as he pondered the man before him. Still cross legged atop the smooth black stone, his eyes still closed, and his posture unchanged, he spoke as if the conversation they were having was pre-written. He spoke as if he knew where each exchange would lead, and specifically, what Aegon would say next.</p><p>"I believe there is. I know a man that is coming here, a good man, and maybe he can help."</p><p>"I know, Aegon. Kaono Soon. I've seen this in the flames. We will strip ourselves of the red robes and seek him out on the road. We will join him and assimilate into his host, hiding from the Empress in plain sight. We will join her caravan as opposed to attacking it, and just like the Elden, we will attack from the inside of her camp. We will seek our victory from within her own ranks."</p><p>"No."</p><p>"No? This is not the conversation we had in my vision."</p><p>"Well, things must change then, especially when you talk about how they have happened. You will join Kaono. You will assimilate into his ranks. But to win against this foe, we must be cautious. We must not violently lash out in anger, for then we appear the aggressor, we appear the villain. We must remain patient. We must see this through and show her people who she really is. Show them what she really is."</p><p>"What is she, Aegon? What is she then?" he asked, seemingly knowing or feeling his inner turmoil. The conflicting feelings of lust and hate, love and betrayal.</p><p>"Whatever she is, she is not who she claims to be. Let me uncover more of the truth. You just need to ensure your people stay alive. This is the best way I can see to do that."</p><p>"Our people will be forever in your debt, if truly you do this to save us. If you do this to push your inevitable break from the Empress until later for the sake of your own sinful desires and personal turmoil, then we will die, all of us, and you will be the one to blame. Not her."</p><p>"Wake the village and gather your things. If you leave within the next few hours, you should be able to meet with Kaono with enough time to make this work."</p><p>"Thank you, Aegon."</p><p>"Don't thank me yet. Kaono has to accept you."</p><p>"He will. I've seen it in the flames."</p><p>As meager a camp as it was, Aegon had little to do as he tried to assist the men and survivors packing the place up. As the villagers and warriors bustled about around him, he only walked aimlessly back and forth offering help, to which all replied with a polite, "No thank you." After enough attempts, he stopped focusing on others, and began to think of himself. I have to return to her. And without Akino.</p><p>Pal was hitched with the other horses, much calmer than he was the previous night. Aegon fed him an apple as he untied his reigns and readied him to ride. As he strapped the saddle tightly to his steed, Aegon felt a soft tug on his breeches. He looked down to see the brown eyed boy he saved looking up at him, his eyes as wide as ever, his lip almost pouting.</p><p>"Where are you going? Aren't you coming with us?"</p><p>"No, son. I have to go back. If I don't return, she will come looking for me. Then, she'd find you. And I can't have that happen."</p><p>"We need you. Jhat says you're the one. You're the one that can help bring them all back."</p><p>Bring them back? "It will only be for a short time, but I need you to behave and do everything your elders tell you to. I'm glad to see you alive and well, but I would never be able to forgive myself if something happened to you because of my plans. Go on, now. They will be leaving shortly."</p><p>"As will you too?"</p><p>"Yes. I will leave as you do. We will go in opposite directions, but we will meet again, I promise you."</p><p>"What is your name," he asked. "I've only ever called you the Man of Fire."</p><p>"My name is Aegon. And yours?"</p><p>"Binny. My mother called me Binny."</p><p>"Until we meet again, Binny." Aegon nodded, mounted Pal, and galloped to the camp's center. Jhat was there to bid Aegon goodbye. Aegon nodded and handed Jhat a parchment. Send an emissary with this message for Kaono. He'll know it is me and he'll know what to do."</p><p>"Thank you for what you've done, and for what you have yet to do. We will forever be in your debt, Man on Fire."</p><p>Aegon nodded once more, and kicked Pal into a gallup, back toward the Azure Road. Back to Khiana.</p><p>After a half day's ride, Aegon could see the Imperial Progress from a relative distance, and kicked Pal to speed up to make better time. I guess the time has come to face my fate. Pray she doesn't kill me on site.</p><p>He had worried over seeing Khiana for days now, even before departing for The Crossing with Akino, but certainly more and more after his fight with the brute. What did I do to lose her trust? Did I want her trust to begin with? Who is she? What am I to her?</p><p>Night after night, he relished in the beauty of her form, the sinful sensations of her lust, her skin, her moans, and every playful moment and action shared between them. She's made me forget my love so easily; this all must be part of her spell. Isn't it?</p><p>Aegon's teke teke approached the lead cart hailing it to halt the caravan's progress. The driver did so, begrudgingly, giving Aegon the same sideways glare he always had, and Aegon promptly dismounted from his horse. After taking a deep breath to compose himself, hitched Pal to the Empress' cart and leapt through the curtain. The sooner I see her face, the sooner this weight will be relieved from my soul. Or my soul will be relieved from my body.</p><p>"Aegon, where have you been? We've been expecting you," her smooth voice said, not startled in the least bit by his abrupt arrival and entrance. Her face was even more beautiful than he remembered. Her thick full lips almost pouted as she spoke, the words slipping off her soft tongue like spun silk. Her skin was as smooth and warm, almost a golden brown, as he remembered, or even more so. The bare skin of her folded legs beckoned him to touch. Her eyes, as green as ever, shone up at him, seated atop her bed, and sparkled like sunlight off the ocean. She smiled, as coy and sinful as ever, and stood to greet him. The sheer silk of her dress clung to her chest and hips, hiding, but revealing all the same, the tight and perfect form he'd grown so accustomed to having, holding, and pressing his own body against.</p><p>So entranced by the beautiful visage of his Empress, Aegon almost didn't notice they weren't alone. A figure stood to his right, just out of his periphery, but Aegon could feel the man's presence. Aegon turned.</p><p>He saw a huge body.</p><p>But is there a soul?</p><p>It was Akino.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Chapter 19</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>A/N</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>On this eve before the American Holiday Thanksgiving, I want you all to know I am more than grateful and thankful for anyone reading these words and especially the subsequent ones. It has been a long, trying year, and a long hard battle with innumerable outside forces both making life in general harder, and especially writing (at times. Let's be honest though, initially the quarantine was the best for us specifically). That being said, I am truly ecstatic to bring you more of Aegon Velaryon and his adventures. Please comment or PM with thoughts and feedback, as they are what I am most thankful for (writing wise).</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>And on a personal note, my newborn son, the one keeping these updates as far apart as they have been. Is worth the wait. Be happy. Be healthy. Stay safe. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you thank you thank you for making all these countless hours of work worth it. You're the best!</strong>
</p><p>19</p><p>In his eyes; Akino's dead, steely, vacant eyes, no more was there the green glow of his empress. When Aegon turned to see the body of the man he recently killed, looking into his eyes was like peering into a bottomless pit, an abyss of the deepest black, the deepest dark.</p><p>The whites of his eyes were white no longer, but brown, a deep and gruesome brown that evoked thoughts of decay. The face framing his blank and possessed stare was similarly affected; blackened brown circles around his eyes, and splotches of his amber skin, the color of ash and mud, that were never there before.</p><p>In the moment he stared at him, Aegon noticed the enormous body twitch, as if something moved it unwillingly. His lips creased ever so slightly for an instant, and then flashed back to the ceaseless stone scowl again, as if a force inside his dead mind was fighting against himself.</p><p>The horrifying visage of the corpse clashed so starkly with the beauty of his empress, his eyes almost averted from the sight he should be studying to the much more pleasant image of her, but he forced himself to look, almost warily, at the large dead body standing to his right.</p><p>"We were seperated," he said in a gurgled deep low tone. The words came out as forced air, bubbling past his dry mouth with a sound more akin to that of a swamp than a person.</p><p>"Indeed," Aegon replied, still wary of the former Guard. "I thought you were dead." They traded icy cool glares, remaining stoically fixed on the other.</p><p>"Not dead," he said, his face still, his dead eyes stiller, "just forgotten." A palpable chill filled the air, so much so, the empress herself shivered.</p><p>Aegon's hand slowly slid to his left hip. Being in such close quarters, the dirk would prove more nimble, quicker, and would less likely injure her holiness. His dead foe continued his blank and lifeless stare into the middle of the cart, twitching once or twice more. Akino was still unarmed, but if he could come back from death, he might not need anything but his reanimated rotting body to bring Aegon to death's door, again.</p><p>Where once there was a deep and mortal puncture wound, Akino's neck was now only slightly discolored. The only evidence of Aegon's strike, which he almost began to question actually occurred, was the sliced and frayed leather where the dirk plunged down though. As Aegon studied the wound, or where it had been, the corpse's skin rolled, as if something had pushed it out from within. Aegon blinked, trying to clear his vision. He was fatigued from travel, from being knocked out again, and from lack of sound sleep and food. Maybe he was seeing things. Maybe, he was mistaken.</p><p>"Is that all, your holiness?" the body asked, his voice hauntingly direct.</p><p>"I wouldn't say so, my sweet giant. Aegon has just returned, and without so much as a report on what he's seen. Surely you'd like to hear what he was able to do while you wandered back here like a lost pet, no?"</p><p>"I know what he's seen. What he's faced," he said, changing not an inch of his stone posture and expression, continuing to stare into the middle of the room. "Seems like the man is lucky to be alive."</p><p>"How do you know what he's seen when you were here?"</p><p>"He's seen <em>us. </em>And <em>we </em>are <em>everywhere."</em></p><p>A brown leech squirmed from the corner of Akino's dark eye and slid into his nose. Both Aegon and Khiana saw it and were frozen in a sudden disbelief. The empress gasped audibly with disgust and fear. Aegon gripped the dirk, his knuckles white, and pulled it out of its sheath.</p><p>"Behind me," Aegon ordered his master, in which she obeyed immediately. Her face paled from teak to a ReGar gray, and her wide green eyes seemed to shiver with the rest of her, horrified at the sight that began.</p><p>More elden sprouted. From his ears, from his mouth, from his pores. <em>Through </em>skin, slicing then slipping through openings that seemed to shut behind like a swinging door. As his body and face remained as stone, a statue of grotesquery, the elden slithered about and around like a mad swarm. There was so many cycling so quickly, they appeared more fluid brown streaks of viscous mud than the wormy form Aegon encountered at the Crossing.</p><p>"You couldn't be claimed, so we took him in your stead," it said, turning its head, looking into Aegon's eyes with the dead black void beneath its brows. "The dead are much more pliable."</p><p>"What the fuck, Aegon?" Khiana asked in an exasperatingly desperate whimper, clutching to him from behind.</p><p>"I'll explain later," he said, looking back at the body, readied. Then it began to swell, the elden swarming in and out, like they were filling Akino's meat sack, expanding it. "Go, now!" Aegon screamed, readying his dirk.</p><p>As she slipped out, the bulging body began to split. Stretched seams of torn, frayed skin spread all over him. Then, he began to grow. Muscle and tendons burst at the joints, revealing the viscous brown formation hidden underneath the meat sack of Akino's once formidably strong body. Some of Akino's dead form remained as the corpse's metamorphosis continued, but most of the limbs, waist, and neck were now shredded tissue and bone, held together by the magma of brown elden, stretching and expanding into a monstrous form.</p><p>Aegon breathed in deep, and attacked, lunging and thrusting the dirk with three swipes, forehand, backhand, forehand again. The dirk ripped through the form like an oar through a still river, but as soon as it plunged, tore through, and sliced out, the brown muck seemed to seal itself back together, making each of the three, and every subsequent swipe nothing more than a minor inconvenience for the elden and the mutating body they inhabited.</p><p>An arm of sludge and rotting flesh swung at him. The slimy tendrils of the elden stretched in long brown semi-solid whips, dripping from the exposed openings of the corpse, and reaching for Aegon's face and neck. He dipped underneath the clumsy attempt, and tried another slash to the torn torso. It proved just as ineffective as any other attack, and Aegon began to feel his heart racing as the wet drips of his mutating foe starting to close around him.</p><p>The slimy tendrils began to encompass him, connecting its outstretched arms, each wet whip entangling to another, forming a web of worms and sludge. He burst through, rolling out of the cart, and landing face first into the dirt rather ungracefully.</p><p>Scrambling back to his feet, Aegon wiped his brow of slugs and slime, shuttered in his skin from disgust, and looked to the empress who stood, still mostly frozen, her mouth agape, and her face twisted foul, as if she would retch any moment.</p><p>Wiping away the rest of the remnants, he ordered "We must go, now!" Khiana looked as if she wanted to obey, but still couldn't move. Behind him, the wood of the cart screeched and snapped, as the body, still growing, brown whips swirling around what was left of the carcass host they inhabited, grew too big and burst out the top and sides of the cart. The cart's driver, who Aegon had never seen do anything other than grumble, jumped head first into the nearby brush upon seeing the monster, as the horses in front and behind reared and were sent into a panic.</p><p>
  <em>Pal.</em>
</p><p>Paluen was hitched to the Empress' cart, but as it broke into shattered pieces, Aegon couldn't see his teke teke. He whistled. Nothing. He whistled again. He still couldn't see him, so Aegon took the Empress by her hand and pulled her away from the cart and towards the edge of the forest.</p><p>"We must alert the people and the guard. <em>These things </em>are the servants of the Old Ones. <em>This </em>is the evil your claims invoked. The body spoke it true, I saw these things at the Crossing. They mean to destroy everyone here, you especially. And somehow, they know of Khissara's death. They say they're not pleased. But it wasn't them, at least. It's someone or a group pretending."</p><p>Her expression showed less recognition than fear, as her green eyes were constantly fixed on the swirling brown monster emerging from Akino's corpse and the remnants of her cart. The rest of the carts in the caravan began to come to a halt, as the horses close enough to see, were all rearing and trying to run away. One smaller cart veered into the wood and smashed into a tree, sending its horses reeling, but they quickly recovered and fled full speed into the forest, leaving the driver and passengers to fend for themselves in the wreckage.</p><p>Commotion behind the stopped carts began to rouse the nobles and servants inside, as the drivers began to all yell frantically, some dismounting and alerting their passengers, others jumping onto horses, freeing them from the breechings, and riding them due North in the opposite direction of the monster.</p><p>Aegon felt a nudge from behind him, and the clop of hooves, as he was surprised and relieved to see Pal. He took the Empress and threw her into Pal's saddle. Without much more than an eye to eye glance with his mount, Aegon slapped Pal's haunch and the steed ran, bringing the Empress to safety.</p><p>As Aegon she quickly disappeared into safety, he thought, <em>didn't she send Akino to kill me? </em>Even if she did, Aegon's honor and instincts wouldn't have allowed him to let the woman die, but her hold of him, which he couldn't ignore any longer, was at least a small part of the reason he saved her. For all that she was, she still had his love, and before his mind could think to ask of her betrayal with Akino's attack, his heart knew he had to get her quickly to safety. <em>Now, how the hell am I going to stop this . . . thing?</em></p><p><em>Same as we deal with all of our problems, </em>a voice inside his head answered: <em>fucking fire.</em></p><p>He re-sheathed the dirk. It would prove useless. He needed to find fire. The problem was, that in the middle of the day like this, none were lit, and the hot wet air of the forest made everything damp. <em>Fuck.</em></p><p>Aegon need time, time which he did not seem to have as the mutating corpse immerged from the broken cart and began to swing its long brown sludge limbs at carts and people, destroying the objects and enveloping the victims.</p><p>With one swing, a cart was reduced to shards. The passengers leapt out of it in time, but after they landed, the same limb swung back down, splashing and covering a green robed man in brown tendrils that wriggled and wrapped around him. He writhed and screamed to be free, but the tendrils tightened, and tightened, until the man folded into himself and seemingly got sucked into Akino's meat suit, fueling the growth of the elden Monster. It repeated the process with the other two passengers, erasing and engulfing three of Khiana's subjects in mere moments.</p><p>Aegon ran toward the back of the train, shouting and slamming his fists against the carts as he passed. "Get out! Get up! There's a monster on the road. Alert the Guard!" After a while he stopped saying anything coherent and just screamed things like, "Let's go! C'mon! Fucking seven hells!"</p><p>After passing ten or so carts, some of which had passengers, most abandoned by their driver, and now all stopped dead in their tracks, he reached Chubahno Con Quilla's.</p><p>"Get the fuck up and out, Chuba!" Aegon yelled. He had never seen Chuba's cart before this, but knew it was his by its ornately designed curtain which bore the emblem of his house; a rooster red on black, with exaggerated talons to look fierce. "If her holiness ever needed the commander of the Imperial Guard, it's now."</p><p>Dressed in his usual finery, he emerged, somewhat groggy, from his cart. "What is the meaning of all this ruckus? When did you return? I will need to be debriefed on the situation at the Cross-," bursting carts behind Aegon caught Chuba's attention mid-word, and the usual look of forced refinement devolved into childish horror instantaneously. He let out a gasp, like that of a woman in labor. His jaw dropped and tears welled up in his eyes.</p><p>"Your Honor, round up the Guard. Your moment for glory is come." Aegon said with a smirk. As horrifying as the situation was, it was an absolute joy to see Chuba's true nature.</p><p>Chuba's lip quivered, and Aegon thought he could smell piss. "You are the commander of the guard, are you not?" he asked, the bursting of carts continuing to creep closer as a mob of passengers stampeded past them.</p><p>He froze, stiller than his Empress, as the first brown limb came into view. He stammered, trying to speak, but failing, pointing at the monster and frantically shifting in his stance. "Wha . . . wha. . wha?"</p><p>"It's the Old Ones. Its your Empress' enemy. C'mon, Chuba. Duty calls."</p><p>He turned and ran, still stammering, but tripped on the flowing silk robe's train, planting face first into the dirt road as people pushed past and swarmed around and over him. <em>Good luck </em>Aegon thought, as Chuba was lost to the crowd. <em>I guess its up to me.</em></p><p>Aegon climbed atop the cart as the monster made short work of the carts behind, creeping closer, engulfing more and more of the Empress' loyal subjects and growing each time. He looked back. Akino's face had ripped like a shedding skin, his eyes, still as black as pitch, situated on each side of the torn face. Four new eyes sat atop of a twenty foot sprawling form of shredded skin and swirling swarming slick tendrils, whipping back and forth and devouring the caravan. Shards of wood exploded as brown wet limbs crashed down, propelling the monster toward him.</p><p>He jumped from cart to cart, screaming to the guard to come help. "Imperial Guard of Leng! Form up! Ready yourselves! The Empress and her people need you!" But as willing as some of them were to kill helpless innocents, none were as willing to meet this foe. The only black armored men he saw were one with the stampeding mob, running as fast as they could to the back of the train.</p><p>
  <em>Where are they going to go? Are they planning to run all the way back to Leng Yi?</em>
</p><p>Someone had to try and stop the thing, as impossible as it seemed twenty feet high and still growing. He only needed fire, but where?</p><p>Leaping from cart to cart, he landed atop the healer's cart. He peered in from the roof to see the healer and Hanse still inside. The healer was calmly tending to the former commander's wounds, pouring a brown liquid onto the opened bandages around the cut on his leg. Hanse's chest had seemed to heal, mostly, leaving an X of scars, but no longer bandaged or infected.</p><p>"You!" Hanse yelled from his sick bed. "When I am able to rise from this bed-,"</p><p>"Shut the fuck up, Hanse. There's a huge monster, from the Old Ones, attacking the caravan. I need help to stop it."</p><p>"Is the Empress safe?"</p><p>"She's atop my steed probably far from here by now."</p><p>"Good. At least you've done your duty. Healer. Get me up. Give me something. It only needs to be a few moments. I don't care to live much longer anyway."</p><p>The healer nodded, still much too serene, for the chaos around them. The mob screamed outside, as the earth near them seemed to shake. The monster was gaining. "Hurry now, healer. I don't want to die on my back."</p><p>The healer ground a brown orb in his mortar, dropped a thick silver liquid into it, swilled it once or twice and handed it to Hanse. "Drink it, quickly. You'll have near an hour if you last that long."</p><p>"What about you?" Aegon asked the healer, as he climbed down into the cart.</p><p>"Worry not of me. I'm going to start a fire for you."</p><p>Puzzled, Aegon said nothing and just accepted the help from his former foe and the mysterious healer. He thought to draw his dual dragon blades, but remembered the effectiveness of the dirk. <em>Hurry up on that fire, my friend. My swords are as useful in this fight as if I held my dick in my hand.</em></p><p>The healer reached into a chest, pulling out four green orbs. They looked like glass, but even more so, they looked like Khiana's eyes. He spoke over them, his palm flat and facing the orbs, chanting something in what sounded like high Valyrian. He snapped, and the orbs seemed to activate, swirling as her eyes did. <em>Sorcery.</em></p><p>"You say you know the Ancient ways, I think you said. That's how you know I need fire?" Aegon asked the healer as he worked.</p><p>"There are Old Ones. They came from the North to settle here eons ago. But before them, before anyone, there were the Ancient Ones. Leng is a land of mysteries and magic the common man will never understand. Know this, though I fight with you today, do not seek to use me for your cause. You will find us on opposite sides of the table."</p><p>"Fair enough," Aegon said, in much more a hurry than the ominous healer. "Give me the Ancient things and let me at this thing."</p><p>"Once the glass is broken, the flames will spread. It is similar to your Westerosi wildfire, but its dark magic. Don't let it break on <em>you. </em>You will not survive it."</p><p>
  <em>Well, you haven't gotten to know me yet.</em>
</p><p>Aegon grabbed the orbs, holding them as gently as he could and still rush, and carefully jumped out of the cart. "Hey big guy, you coming?"</p><p>"I am to die here, as I'm sure you wished," he said from inside the cart as he began to gingerly limp out and down. He moaned in pain as he stood firm on the ground, "At least grant me the boon of not having to hear your fucking mouth until I meet my end."</p><p>"Fair enough," Aegon said again, nodding to his former enemy and graciously accepting his assistance. "Take two of these," he said, handing orbs to Hanse. "Apparently, these worm things don't much like the taste of flames. Don't waste them. Make 'em count, but light this fucker up before he kills anymore people."</p><p>"As long as you shut the fuck up."</p><p>Aegon nodded as to remain silent. Hanse never smiled wider in Aegon's presence.</p><p>"You go and attack from a hidden position, the coward you are," Aegon indulged Hanse, allowing the insult unchecked, "I will garner its attention by attacking head on. I'm not long for this world anyway."</p><p>Aegon nodded again, and slipped into the forest to flank the creature. It continued to blast through cart after cart, working its way toward the mass of running people, and gaining. Aegon quickly found a tree with limbs low enough to begin climbing. He scurried up as fast as he could. Time was of the essence, and it was running out.</p><p>Hanse courageously stood his ground as two carts before the healer's were destroyed and cast aside as if they were no bigger than barstools. The cart just before the healer's was pummeled into the stamped dirt, its wheels and axle splintering and careening high into the sky, almost to where Aegon had scurried up a tree that bordered the road. After the dust settled in the briefest of moments, Hanse stood face to face with the enormous, shredded, and slugged body of his former partner. "You look terrible, you big oaf. In fact, I've never thought anyone could ever look as bad."</p><p>"Humor doesn't register in our consciousness, fool. Enjoy your painful demise." The monster raised his enormous limb to crush Hanse. Hanse reached behind him, grabbed an orb, and hurled it at the monster's face.</p><p>Hanse's aim was true. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that as the orb should have connected with the monster, shattered, and set it aflame. The orb was merely absorbed gently, keeping the glass intact, and it passed from its head-like appendage towards where its shoulder would be if it had them.</p><p>Another grotesque and grimy brown appendage sprouted from that spot, like an arm holding the orb ready to throw it back. The limb cocked back, and launched it. The monster's aim was as true as Hanse's and the orb shattered in the bloated face of the former commander of the Imperial Guard.</p><p>Screams and the smell of searing flesh filled the air, as the monster stood, twenty plus feet above the burning man, gazing down as if he enjoyed watching. Four eyes on the ends of thicker shorter tendrils fixated on Hanse's suffering. <em>Now's my chance.</em></p><p>One eye turned to see Aegon leap, hearing a subtle crack in the branch as he vaulted off of it. Another slug-like limb formed and shot out from the monster like a wet worm arrow, snatching Aegon from the air like a leaf. Sludge sprouted and began wrapping grotesque and slime covered whips around him, gripping him tightly, and beginning to wrap and squeeze, like the monster had done to all the others it had horrifyingly absorbed.</p><p>Hanse was on his knees, screaming in agony, as the raging green fire consumed him. Aegon caught a glimpse of the former commander's skin bubbling on his face, as the roaring inferno seemed to melt the large man like a wax candle. The monster's grip tightened around Aegon, as wet whips slithered around and over him, spreading and connecting themselves, once again forming a web, but this time, with him caught firmly within it and helpless to get out.</p><p>Reaching for the orbs he tucked into his armor, Aegon struggled as best he could to fight the monster's strength, but sheer will was no match for the mythical beast, and as secure as the living Akino once held him in the forest, the dead Akino's hold was ten times as strong. The more Aegon struggled for the orbs, the tighter the tendrils seemed to squeeze.</p><p>The limb holding Aegon in the air began to coil back again, holding its catch twenty or so feet above the road and debris. It then began to shake him back and forth, like a predator that just caught its prey, violently and abruptly. The orbs jostled free from where they were tucked, and fell harmlessly to the road, crashing in two dazzling green explosions, but only burning the ground and immediate space around them. A broken and shattered cart caught flame, burning intensely green and almost immediately to dust, but save the few lingering flares, the only remaining fire was the burning guard below, still screaming in mortal anguish.</p><p>"Hanse!" Aegon screamed, fighting off the sludge and wet whips that accosted his face, mouth, and eyes. He squirmed his face free enough to scream again. "Hanse! Throw the last orb! Throw the last orb at ME!"</p><p>Aegon gulped a breath as the brown form spread across his face, covering his airway, and darkening his vision. He closed both his eyes and mouth, unable to move his arms and legs, wriggling within the wet grasp of the monster, fighting until the last.</p><p>He heard a voice, or voices. Thousands of whispers hushed by each other, but as loud as mob of dead souls, spoke both clearly and muffled, conversing with themselves.</p><p>"<em>So this is the Dragonseed. Might we have use for him yet</em>?"</p><p>"<em>No. See. He's using Ancient magic. What we once thought is no longer true</em>."</p><p>"<em>He's no native Lengii. He doesn't belong here. We should kill him now</em>."</p><p>"<em>Yes, but the power. Do you feel the power? Imagine if we could send him. Imagine if we could use him to destroy the Ancient Ones.</em>"</p><p>Each voice had a different tone. Each thought came from a different direction. It was as if the monster were monsters, and many more than just one consciousness controlled it. Many more than one lost soul.</p><p>Aegon shook his head back and forth, trying to free it from the surrounding sludge. It smelled of swamp and corpse. It felt like slugs and entrails. But if he could just free himself enough to breathe. If he could just live a few more moments. . .</p><p>Keep fighting . . .</p><p>Keep fighting . . .</p><p>Keep fighting . . .</p><p>
  <em>Keep fighting . . . the world was growing darker as his breath began to fail.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>FIGHT!</em>
</p><p>Aegon threw his head back as hard as his weary body would let him. He believed in himself, his destiny, and he was not meant to die in the wet clutches of a brown phlegm giant.</p><p>He gasped a breath in, and saw it hurling toward him. He could barely make it out, but next to the still burning lump of meat that once commanded her holiness' personal guard, was a small frail elderly Yit woman, and she had just thrown the last orb.</p><p>It crashed against his face, and the cool tingling warmth careened through his veins, bouncing through his joints and muscles, strengthening his every twitch and breath. His lips spread in a devilish smile, as he felt his power grow, and the green flame beat back the sludge gripping and squeezing the life out of him.</p><p>Its grip burnt away, Aegon's body fell the road, landing on his feet. His face was fully aflame, and he ignited his arms and hands by rubbing them against it. Now, head and arms blazing, he looked through the swirling green inferno orbiting his eyes and focused on the reeling monster. The arm that it grew to catch him was burnt down like a wick, and its four eyes widened with what could be seen as panic as the green flames began to spread.</p><p>Aegon drew his dragon blades, ignited them against each burning arm, the green flame spreading like wildfire across the steel edges. "You've come to consume me. You've tested my power, coveted it. Now, taste it. Taste the hot breath of my flame. Prepare to meet <em>the dragon!"</em></p><p>Aegon began swinging his burning swords, chopping down, worm by worm, the twenty foot monster as the sludge animating Akino's ripped and frayed corpse let out gut wrenching groans and shrieks, like demons summoning more. But as each elden was burnt away, he could hear the slight whisper of a soul sigh, almost thankfully, as thick mist expelled from each slain slug.</p><p><em>I'm freeing their souls </em>he thought as his flame engulfed arms continued to cut down the monster piece by piece.</p><p>Never had he felt more like the <em>Drahkness Kahn.</em></p><p>
  <strong>Thoughts? Comments? I'd love to hear from you guys. Thanks again. Enjoy your turkey.</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Chapter 20</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>20</p><p>His arms hung heavy at his sides.  Cutting down the elden monster worm by worm was no easy or brief task.  Each lost soul was cut and burnt by the Drahnkness Kahn, in all his flaming green glory, swing by arduous swing.  </p><p> </p><p>As it shrunk down, inch by inch, the surging flame from both the burning monster and Aegon himself reached the forest and began to spread.  He didn't notice while he was still embattled with the Akino monster, but as soon as the last of the eld en had burnt away, he could see and feel the building inferno.</p><p> </p><p>Still burning himself, there's was naught he could do but watch.  </p><p> </p><p>Kiku tried dousing him with water in a skin she found scattered amongst the wreckage of one of the supply carts, but after pouring almost all of it to no avail, she stopped, drank the rest saying, "Looks like you're going to have to burn there for a while yet.  I'm better served drinking the rest than wasting it on you."  </p><p> </p><p>If it wasn't for the tiny elderly woman, Aegon would be consumed or possessed.  He wasn't sure which would be worse, but since she was somehow able to ignite him with the orb just in time, he was still standing where Akino and the elden had fallen.  The healer had disappeared.  His cart and its contents were left undisturbed by the monster but he was absent in the aftermath nonetheless.  It seemed suspicious that he was gone, but as the commotion died down, Aegon had other things to tend to.</p><p> </p><p>Chuba and Hanse were both deceased.  Hanse wasn't much more than a puddle of ooze burning so hot and for so long the only way Aegon could identify him was where the puddle was.  As for the current, or most recent former commander, Chuba's remains were found trampled underneath rubble and coals covered in his own excrement. </p><p> </p><p>With no other Senior members of the guard alive, it fell to Aegon, at least in the immediate aftermath, to act as Commander of the Guard he grew to hate so; a group that hated him just so.</p><p> </p><p>Many nobles of the progress turned their carts around and headed back for Leng Yi.  Some who had lost their carts jumped into those that were retreating, like vagabonds, those that had survived anyway.  The rest who decided to stay with their Empress, for now at least, were all interested to hear her thoughts on the attack.  </p><p> </p><p>Pal and Khiana had yet to return.</p><p> </p><p>The citizens, eager and anxious for answers, all came to Aegon for what he could give them.  Their faces, twisted in both awe and terror, saw him not as an authority, but as some freakish monster, still smoking from the green orb’s flames, and able to take on the enormous foe relatively unscathed.</p><p>“We ask every man of able body and sound mind to assist us in clearing the road.  Though we’ve faced challenges, we are still en route to the Crossing.  There, we will join Magistrate Soon and his party and continue south to Turrani.”</p><p>“At this point,” a noble from the crowd responded, “why should we even continue?  What more can we endure?”</p><p>The noble’s questions resonated with the growing congregation around Aegon, as the interim commander stood atop an intact cart, addressing the crowd with the backdrop of the burning forest behind him.  “This progress was never meant to be a pleasant journey.  We travel to the seat of those we fear may mean us harm.  This progress was always set to face resistance and attack.  Nothing has changed other than the knowledge our enemy’s intent, and the confirmation of the dangers Leng faces.”</p><p>“We are all but defeated, then, Your Honor,” another noble shouted from the ground.  “Save the few Guard left that didn’t perish or run away, we are nothing but noblemen with our own personal guard.  We cannot hope to stand against any enemy, especially if they can take the form of that monster!”</p><p>The crowd rabbled and roused.  Commotion from the upset nobles, their attendants, and families all began to grumble about their circumstances in agreement with the nobles that spoke up.</p><p>Angst and tension built around Aegon to a palpable pitch.  Concerned mumblings started to turn into enraged outcries.  “Where is the Empress?!” </p><p>“We must return home!”</p><p>Aegon lifted his heavy arms trying to pacify the mob, hushing them as if patience and calm would affect them.  It wouldn’t.  “Easy everyone.  Just calm down,” he began to start pleading from the cart, looking down at the growing hysteria.</p><p>“We may not even be able to escape the burning forest!  We must all leave. Now!” the first noble said, climbing atop a cart across from Aegon.</p><p>“Cowards, the lot of you!  With the fiery words from your leader upon her ascension, all of you flocked to follow her here.  Now, at the first-,”</p><p>“Second,” a voice from the crowd yelled out.  “This is the second attack!”</p><p>“And what scars do you bare from that fight, ser?” Aegon asked incensed.  Not only did the man who shouted remain silent, but the crowd as a whole began to quiet and look to Aegon.</p><p>“As I was saying, after facing a threat, a threat you all were made aware of, now is when you feel it best to turn and run?  Any that abandon the Empress now, just know she will remember.”</p><p>“Easy to say when you’re a monster yourself!”  </p><p>Aegon didn’t know how to respond to that.  As quickly as he had seemed to reach the crowd, they just as quickly turned on him increasing in agitation and beginning to jeer at him.  “Why are we listening to this foreigner?”</p><p>“Be gone, monster!  Go back to where you came from!”</p><p>“Shut up, Freak!”</p><p>The crowd jostled and murmured, growing in discontent and angst.  Most of the surviving members of the caravan were now all out of their carts, congregated in the middle of the road, framed on both sides by a forest still burning, with their Empress was nowhere to be seen.</p><p>“Bring out her Holiness!  Where are you keeping her?”</p><p>
  <em>Where is she, indeed?  C’mon, Pal.  Bring her back.</em>
</p><p>Aegon had faith in his steed.  He connected with the horse almost immediately, and it seemed the teke teke and he shared an instant bond, but where had he run to?  When would he return?  There was only so much Aegon could do to keep the mob at bay.  Without her holiness to support him, they would either turn on him, or turn around.  Neither would do.</p><p>
  <em>Why do I even care?  I stand before the woman who ordered to kill me’s subjects, preaching to remain loyal to her.  Am I even to stay loyal to her?  I sent the red robes that mean to kill her to Kaono to join us.  Did I order her death?</em>
</p><p>From behind the cart and away from the mob, Aegon heard Kiku yell to him.  “You should have left when you had the chance,” in Valyrian.  “This mob is about to eat you alive.”</p><p>He turned to answer her, “None among them would dare.”</p><p>“I wouldn’t be so sure,” she said.  When he turned back, a fruit flew passed his face.</p><p>“Monster!” the crowd member jeered, and slowly, Aegon felt as if the mob was beginning to sour.</p><p>“If you wish, I will leave.  But remember, when you are next in need, do not assume I will save you again,” he said, as he stepped down from the cart and towards Kiku.</p><p>Men climbed carts to be the next to speak; the next vocal leader of this traveling party gone wrong.  Aegon ignored them.  <em>I risk everything for them and all they can do is jeer.</em></p><p>“Now, now, gorgeous.   Don’t fret your pretty little head about the ol’ crowd there.  In a few more minutes, they’ll be crying for you to come back.” Kiku said, elbowing Aegon as he descended from the cart.  “I brought this for you.  Or should I say, for me.”  She pulled the jahkyar cloak from her a bag she had strapped around her shoulder.</p><p>“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this.”</p><p>“Longer since it’s been washed,” she said, smirking with delight in her jest.  “But I bring it to you to discuss its contents.”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“Don’t play dumb with me, boy.  I know when you’re really being dumb and when you’re feigning it.  I taught you how.”</p><p>Sewn inside the jahkyar cloak was the amulet from the Red Priestess.</p><p>“Fine then.  What do you want with it?”</p><p>“I want to know what it is.  I want to know what it’s for.”</p><p>“Even I don’t know what it’s for,” Aegon said, scratching his head.  “It was once a trinket of a woman I crossed paths with-,”</p><p>“A path between her legs?”</p><p><em>There was a time in which I wished I had.  </em>“No you horny old bat.  She was a sorceress.  She spoke of destiny and purpose.  Led me to Leng, in fact.  But other than giving it to me and telling me I’d need it, I have no idea what it is or what it’s for.”</p><p>“Pity,” she said.  “I thought you knew about the amulets.”  Kiku ripped at the stitching and pulled apart the cloak.  She reached in and pulled out the amulet, still glowing red, and swirling.  Like the Empress’ eyes, or . . .</p><p>
  <em>Her amulet.</em>
</p><p>“Your mind seems to have found something.”</p><p>“Maybe.  What, I don’t know.  But there’s someone else that has an amulet like that.”</p><p>“Yes,” she said.  “And do you know what it is for?”</p><p>Aegon didn’t.  Not yet.  He knew that when the Painted Skull attacked, and died, he reached for it, saying, “She’s not who you think she is.”</p><p>He remembered the dream he’d had about Khiana, chained and emaciated.  He saw the atrocity seemingly ordered by her to kill the families of the Red Robes.  He felt something inside him, fighting the affection he’d grown to have for her, an affection that seemed to him fully unnatural.</p><p>“I can find out.”</p><p>“You should.  Find out for yourself what I already know.  When you do, find me.  I’ll be in my cart.  I’m going to take this with me,” she said, referring to the glowing red rubied amulet clutched firmly in her wrinkled old hands. </p><p>As the crowd continued to rabble behind him, he thought of his Empress, and anxiously awaited her return.</p><p>----</p><p>A Yit noble, one that Aegon was unfamiliar with, rose to power of the chaotic and desperate mob.  He stood atop the same cart Aegon climbed down from, dressed in a dark blue robe traced with crimson.  He was young for a noble so outspoken, most like the son of a more well known noble, but he spoke with the vigor of youth, and his message was clear.</p><p>“With a void in leadership, we have become lost.  Do we turn back?  Do we strive forward?  Does this monster truly speak for her holiness?” He had a strong, handsome young face.  Well coifed straight black hair, pulled into a bun in the customary Yit way.  He had a thin line of facial hair that traced down his sharp chiseled jaw, framing it with a paper-thin beard that looked like the strap of a helm.  He was slight, but not frail, as the definition of his frame was easily seen through the silk robe and other garments.  Younger than Aegon, maybe eight and ten, he presented himself as much older, much more seasoned than his baby face seemed to indicate was his actual age.  And he spoke very well, almost as well as Khiana herself.</p><p>“I, as the rest of you, do not know the answers.  Not yet, anyway.  But the monster does speak it true.”  He paused, looking judgingly at the mob beneath him.  “What you all have shown is cowardice and betrayal.”</p><p>The crowd silenced again, as each singular member looked around, knowing the truth of his words.  Aegon smiled to hear someone agree with him.  Holding a stern look of condemnation, he continued, “In trying times, we must stand strong with our leader.  For our leader, if need be.  You all knew the risks.  Being fearful upon facing them, in truth, is as normal as our fervent support prior.  But make no mistake, our lives are safer here, in peril, seeking to bring justice to those that oppose us, up HER, than we would ever be running and hiding from such treason!”</p><p>With that, the crowd began to turn again, this time, in full support of this young noble.</p><p>“You ser,” he asked pointing to a random member of the crowd, “do you love Leng and our Empress?”</p><p>“Yes, yes I do,” the man replied.</p><p>“You?” the young noble asked another.  “And you?  And you?” All nodded in agreement.</p><p>“She needs us now more than ever before, surrounded on all sides by foes and monsters,” <em>wait a minute, does he mean me?  </em>“Besieged by forces of a supernatural nature, and only in pursuit of her mother’s and our former leader’s murderers.  Will you abandon her here and now?  Will you turn your back on her and our great Land?”</p><p>The crowd yelled back with a resounding, “No!”</p><p>“Then listen to this foreigner, for now.  We need men to help clear the road.  Whose with me?!”</p><p>Volunteers sprouted up like weeds in a garden, raising their now eager hands ready to serve her holiness and this new young noble.  He grinned a princely grin, successfully swaying the heart of the mob, and Aegon didn’t know whether to like or despise him.  If he was honest with himself, he felt the beginnings of both.</p><p>The young noble delegated groups to tasks and later descended from his cart pulpit to assist in the efforts.  <em>He’s even willing to get his young hands dirty.  </em>As the young noble made headway towards the rubble and splintered carts, Aegon intercepted him to offer his thanks and support.  “I and her holiness owe you a debt of gratitude, your Honor.”</p><p>“Think nothing of it,” he said, not even taking the time to look Aegon in his eyes as he spoke.  “The name’s Remoh Shing.  Please assist us in cleaning your mess.”</p><p>“My mess?” Aegon asked, incensed again by the gall of the young noble.  “What more would you have me do?”</p><p>“From what I know,” he said, still looking past Aegon, “you left with the Empress’ most loyal guard, longest standing guard, and when you returned, he was a monster that only you were able to defeat.”</p><p>“Am I being accused of something, your Honor?”</p><p>“I cannot prove anything, ser, so nothing is being accused, but know this: I am aware of your relationship with our Empress and I do not approve of it in the least.”</p><p>
  <em>Wait until he finds out she tried to kill me.</em>
</p><p>“I mean this land and her leader nothing but to keep her safe.  Next time there is a monster or foe, I will be glad to hand you command.”</p><p>“I will be glad to receive it.  Words are wind, as they say in your land.  Show me, ser.”  With that, Remoh made his way to assist with the clearing of the road.  Aegon did the same, both impressed and incensed by the accusation of the young man.</p><p>---</p><p>As twilight began to descend upon them, and the soft glow of the dying flames subsided, Aegon wiped his brow of sweat and reached for a wineskin to quench his thirst and ease his nerves.  Exhaustion from the previous days and nights began to set in, and he felt his mind becoming somewhat delirious.</p><p>Looking past the caravan of carts to the horizon, he thought he saw the shape of his horse galloping towards him.  Atop Pal, the shadow of his Empress seemed to gracefully bounce, as she had atop him so many nights.  He shook his head, both to clear his questionable thoughts and in shame.  <em>Gods, this woman has a hold on me.</em></p><p>As the silhouette grew closer and closer, Aegon wondered if it was truly her.  He wondered if seeing her was a relief, or a strife, and both his heart and mind felt torn in two.  Part of him was fervently devoted to the new love of his life, the other part seared with brimming hatred for the fiend she seemed to truly be.</p><p>The closer Pal galloped, the more people noticed until one woman shouted out, “It’s her!  Khiana has returned!”</p><p>She raced past her subjects, waving gracefully as she bounced in her saddle, smiling regally.  He knew the face she forced when she needed to show strength; when she needed to be an Empress, and never had her face looked more forced.  Beneath the rehearsed facial expression was the welling of deep emotion.  Was it fear?  Regret?  Longing?  Aegon couldn’t tell.  But beneath her veneer, she was vulnerable.</p><p>Pal galloped through the subjects as she waved and reached out for their hands, making his way towards Aegon as if he’d called him.  Remoh stepped in front of the steed, catching his reigns trying to slow the horse down to collect the Empress.  Pal stopped reluctantly, stepping in place as if he had somewhere else to be, and the young noble reached out his hand to assist the Empress’ descent. </p><p>Remoh stood on the horse’s right, his gesture of courtesy and chivalry a spectacle for the crowd he’d recently won over with his words.  Those words were in clear support of her holiness, and it seemed he stood to collect the boon for his accomplishment, grinning as if he knew something everyone else didn’t. </p><p>Khiana dismounted on Pal’s left, sliding out of the saddle, her hair a mess and her clothing in shambles, sliding away and slipping past Remoh Shing as if he didn’t exist.  Her façade faded quickly, and she desperately bounded towards Aegon, her green eyes welling up with emotion and fixed on him.  There was a sincere desperation in her expression as she ran. </p><p>The half of his heart that loved her sank.  He turned to her, opening his arms as she grew closer, her own arms beginning to extend.  She jumped into his, wrapping her long smooth legs and dainty teak arms around him, enveloping him and an exploding with an emotional muted wail that she suppressed by screaming into his chest.  Aegon felt the wetness of her tears soak his undershirt as she pressed against it, and he sighed as if he was relieved and all was right.  <em>At least for this moment it is.</em></p><p>It was for but a brief moment, but while they held their embrace, the crowd around paused in a curious silence.  Some fawned, others gossiped, but Aegon could hear the crowd bustle again, judging the display one way or another.  Aegon was no expert in leadership of a people, but it seemed her exposed frailty and open humanity did not suit her station as a Goddess among Men. </p><p>As the moment ended, he peered over her shoulder and caught Remoh’s glare.  He looked none too pleased to say the least.  It would be more accurate to say he began plotting his vengeance, but all Aegon had done was win the favor of the most powerful and beautiful eligible woman in their land.  What could have crossed the young noble so?</p><p>She climbed back down, keeping hold of Aegon’s shoulders as she looked into his eyes, her lips quivering, saying, “When the horse began to run, I never looked back.  I thought you’d surely die and I didn’t want to see it.  I never looked back until he reared and turned around.  I saw the flames and had hope, but I still never thought I’d see you again.”  She brought a hand to his cheek.  “Or touch you.”  Their eyes locked, and deep within him he feared she’d use her spell.  Deeper still, his heart warmed, and his love felt deeper, and they leaned in for a kiss together, breaking off at the last moment into another more acceptable embrace for her public. </p><p>“There’s much I need to tell you.  When our progress continues, I need you with me.” She whispered in his ear, like a prayer, or a confession.</p><p>“As you command, your Holiness.”</p><p>He responded out of pure reflex, without thought.  <em>She must still have a hold </em>he thought. </p><p>Then his head continued to work through until it was clear.  <em>Regardless of her hold or the strength of her power, her love is the sweetest lie.</em></p><p>
  
</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Chapter 21</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>21</p><p> </p><p>Clearing the road took less time for the volunteers and humble nobles than deciding where to put those who'd lost their carts to the monster.  Eleven carts in total were destroyed during the skirmish and another three were damaged to the point they had to be reassigned.  Seven passenger carts and four provisions carts were reduced to shards and rubble, while three more carts carrying wares and trinkets of the Empress herself were damaged enough that the weight of their contents were too much for them to operate functionally.  If the weight was reduced, they could still manage to move, but nonetheless, adjustments to the travel plan needed to be made, and none of the esteemed nobles that decided to stay were too pleased to be downgraded or moved.</p><p> </p><p>All in all, every cart of the twenty four or so remaining had to be adjusted.  Some by taking on more passengers, others by taking on more items, but of the remaining carts, only the healer's abandoned cart was left uninhabited, which made the situation worse for anyone that decided to stay with the Empress.  Including the noble Remoh Shing, who graciously offered up his own cart for the Empress' use.</p><p> </p><p>He received his wish.  The Empress indeed chose to use his cart, but not for her person; only her belongings.  Remoh's disappointed reaction to the Guards as they filled his cart with her wardrobe, wine stores, and food, was worth the effort it took to carry her robes (which were much heavier than Aegon assumed they were by a lot).</p><p> </p><p>In the end, though, the subjects that stayed still believed in her divinity; in her sovereignty; and upon requests directly from her holiness, eventually obliged with humility and grace.  Aegon assumed they thought they would gain favor with the young Empress, but he doubted she even remembered their names.</p><p> </p><p>"Salvage all you can from the rubble.  Anything that might prove useful, keep it.  We do not know what dangers we may face, and we do not know the next opportunity to restore our wares," Aegon instructed the remaining Guard.  He didn't know any of the men that were left personally.  He didn't even recognize any of them, but he wasn’t going to make an effort to learn who any of them were either.  He still blamed the Guard for something he deep down knew was his love's fault, and cared little to know them any better or worse than he already had.</p><p> </p><p>It took a full day of deliberating and clearing for the caravan to be able to continue its progress.  For that, Aegon felt they were lucky.  "We could have spent weeks arguing over who sat where."  He explained to his Empress, who thought even a day was too long.</p><p> </p><p>"We need to keep moving," she kept saying, as if it were an Imperial Order.  Aegon wasn't sure if it was out of dedication to her ideals or fear of another attack, but either way, she spoke with an intense urgency.  </p><p> </p><p>When Aegon finally gave the order to start their progress again, Khiana had already retired to her new cart, changed into a more comfortable evening gown, and finished one of the three skins of wine she had brought to her for the evening.  Something seemed to weigh heavy on her while they worked.  Even through her apparent relief and happiness in their mutual survival, something bothered her.  Something so consuming, she barely seemed herself at all.</p><p> </p><p>When Aegon returned to her cart, as he was bid, to officially protect her, and unofficially, well, he wasn't sure yet, she was stretched luxuriously on her mattress with her body in full repose, but her face twisted in an anxious worry.</p><p> </p><p>"There you are, my love," she cooed as he stepped into the cart.  "It has certainly been a long few days without you here," she said, patting next to her on the mattress.</p><p> </p><p>"Longer for me still, I'd wager," Aegon jested, trying to ease her discomfort with a grin and a flirtatious shake of his hair.  </p><p> </p><p>"As I intimated before, there is an urgent matter I must speak to you about."</p><p> </p><p>"Aye.  And for me as well."</p><p> </p><p>They paused and looked to the other, saying in unison, "You go first."</p><p> </p><p>After a nervous laugh, Aegon stepped towards her.  "Before we speak," he said, crawling onto the mattress with her.  He climbed up past her long slender body, glancing her skin with a soft touch as he worked up to her worried face and kissed her sweetly.  "There.  As you were saying."  He smiled, sincerely relieved to have kissed her again, despite half of his heart on the verge of hatred.</p><p> </p><p>"That is quite an unfair gesture if we mean to be speaking of serious matters, ser,” she responded, her warm brown skin showing a bit of a blush as she smirked and almost giggled to herself.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>As serious as you having me killed?  Yes, quite unfair.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>"Very well then," he said, fighting the voice inside him that wanted to keep their encounter physical.  "I'll start."</p><p> </p><p>As he gathered the thoughts in his head to speak, her hold pulling his heart fumbled his words.  It was a struggle to focus on his message.  Until, that is, he started to visualize the dead innocents.  Hearing their screams and seeing their faces quickly sobered him.  Aegon summoned strength inside him, honor bound and unbreakable, to face his lovely antagonist.</p><p> </p><p>"I would like to speak of Akino,” he said.</p><p> </p><p>"As would I.  How did that happen?"</p><p> </p><p>"Not what he became after, but what he was ordered to do first."</p><p> </p><p>"What do you mean?" she asked, either feigning ignorance or truly responding with it.</p><p> </p><p>"With swirling green eyes, Akino attacked me on our mission.  He was as silent and stupid as he always seemed, but when we retreated into the wood to water his horse, he turned on me and tried to kill me."</p><p> </p><p>"My Akino?" her face was similarly authentic.  <em>She's either among the best mummers in the known world or this is somewhat surprising to her.</em></p><p> </p><p>"Yes.  <em>Your</em> Akino.  <em>Your</em> green swirling eyes.  Was it you?  Did you order your man to kill me?"  His heart hurt as his voice asked it.  Part of him vexed at the inferred accusation.  The other part thought <em>How do I not hate this woman?  </em></p><p> </p><p>"Of course I didn't!  Never!  I . . . I . . ." she paused as she stammered her thoughts. </p><p> </p><p>"You what!"</p><p> </p><p>"I would never order you killed.  Even after you attacked Hanse, I wanted nothing more than to take back my order to kill those people.  I told him to kill them all, for that was what <em>I</em> was ordered to say.  I never thought there’d be children."</p><p> </p><p>"Who gives orders to an Empress?"</p><p> </p><p>With that, she paused again.  She paused so long it felt as if an eternity passed between his question, her breaths, and her answer.  As she waited to respond, Aegon could see the weight of whatever burdened her blistering into her features twisting her pretty brow and sensual mouth with regret and guilt like her words weren't hers; like her heart was as torn as his.</p><p> </p><p>"That is what I need to tell you, Aegon.  Remember when we last had a conversation this intense?"</p><p> </p><p>"Yes.  When we first came together."</p><p> </p><p>"And I forced myself upon you,” she said ashamed.</p><p> </p><p>"Yes.  Yes, I remember."</p><p> </p><p>"Do you remember when I said I'd tell you my truth in time?"</p><p> </p><p>"Where are you going with this, Khiana?" Aegon said her name as if she was nothing more than another common woman.  It rolled off of his tongue like it had always been that way between them, even if it was the first time.  Aegon almost felt embarrassed.  The Empress looked as though she enjoyed it.</p><p> </p><p>"I must tell you my truth,” she vowed, her green eyes steadfast in her newfound candor.  “I cannot keep it from you any longer.  Not after what I've seen.  Not after what you've done for me."</p><p> </p><p>All of Aegon for the first time in a while agreed.  <em>Lift your lies, woman, and unveil your truth.</em></p><p>The night around the cart was as quiet as it had ever been.  The destruction of the forest from the inferno either laid waste to the wildlife around, or at least made it all scatter.  So, inside the cart, waiting for her promised truth, Aegon bubbled with tense anticipation as the deafening silence seemed to mute the internally embattled ruler laid bare before him.</p><p>Aegon studied her face as she struggled to speak, looking down at her body as if it was out of place.  She peered up, looking deep into his eyes; <em>his soul, </em>and began her confession as her eyes started to swirl around her pupils.</p><p>She caught Aegon off guard, and he couldn’t avert his eyes away.  His mind slipped from its normal consciousness into a still calm.  He was both aware and unable to move.  She was doing it again, and if he could fight it, he would never forgive her. </p><p>“What I say to you, must be kept in confidence.  No one, not even your friend Kiku, must ever learn of or even start to consider what I am about to tell you.  My life, your life, and the lives of countless others are at stake.”  Contemplating her next words, she paused and stood up from the mattress.  She walked over to the curtain of the cart, peeked out of it as to check for anyone around them, and tied it shut.  Then, she placed a hand on Aegon’s face, and kissed his cheek tenderly.  “Just know that no matter what is said, or what happens next, the feelings I have for you are not . . .” she struggled to find the words, “they’re not . . . .” she paused again.  “They are true.”</p><p>She stepped back, showing herself off as if to please his forcefully focused eyes.  Then she reached for her neck.  <em>For her amulet.</em> </p><p>Her hands unclasped it and brought the stone down from around her neck.  A heartbeat later, both the stone and the Empress Khiana’s body began to shimmer.  Thousands of specks of bright glitter sparkled blindingly in the cart, as the form of the woman before him morphed.  Her head lowered, her legs shortened, her full breasts shrunk, and her facial structure changed.  Even her skin, her warm brown skin, lightened.  A few moments later, after the glitter and light had diminished, before him stood an all together different woman. </p><p>She was shorter than Aegon by a full head and a half.  Her once thick, curled, and wavy hair flattened to pin straight, thin, and long hair, blacker and longer than it was just moments before.  Her once athletic physique, complete with a full bust and curvy silhouette, was now petite, fragile even, lacking the thick curves that were so emphasized in her silk robe.  Her skin, which was once as dark and rich as fertile soil, was now light, pale even, and the glowing complexion she once flaunted was now muted by how bright her skin already was.</p><p>Her once fierce and commanding face, the face of a sovereign leader, was now humble, fragile.  Even her confident smile reduced to a vulnerable and hesitant smirk, as if she was waiting for Aegon’s approval.</p><p>No longer was she the Leg beauty Aegon had grown to know both emotionally and intimately.  That he had grown to love. </p><p>No longer was she the essence of sexuality and desire she had grown to become. </p><p>No longer was she the irresistible force from the Dragon Pool, flaunting her vivacious and voluptuous offerings with an insatiable lust of her own.    </p><p>She was meek.  She was small.  She was unassuming.</p><p>But she still was beautiful.  Maybe even more so.</p><p>Her high cheek bones and full lips, though new, were as gorgeous as she had been moments before.  Her small nose and delicate jaw were even more feminine, and the simplicity of her eyes, almond shaped and thin, framed with long curled lashes and sharp brows, were even more striking than the wide green eyes of his Empress.</p><p>She batted her lashes nervously as a reluctant smile stretched across his face, the hold of her green eyes and their power subtly waning.</p><p>“You’re beautiful, whoever you are,” he said, his body and voice still suspended somewhat in a trance.</p><p>“I am Keeno Noon.  It is nice to finally meet you.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Chapter 22</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>22</p><p>Her new and surprisingly beautiful face almost soothed the brimming anger inside him from her transformation. She was not who she said she was, and seemingly had never been. Ascended and anointed the leader of this land, she looked to be nothing more than another commoner, of Yit descent no less, and as the painted skull and red robes had warned him: not the woman she claimed to be.</p><p>Though a clear confirmation of the truth, it was something Aegon already suspected. His dreams, his instincts, and the warnings from the others all confirmed that the woman before him now, was not the same young woman from the Dragon Pool.</p><p>
  <em>She is an imposter. She is a traitor. She ordered the murder of innocents, royalty, and me.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Then why do I long to touch her? Why do I want nothing more than to comfort her troubled face?</em>
</p><p>She stood before him, in her natural form and fully clothed, as naked as she had ever been. As Khiana, she would strut around the cart bare and proud, unashamed and unafraid. Never once did Aegon remember her being the slightest bit modest, especially in regards to her appearance.</p><p>Now, though her skin barely showed, she shrugged her shoulders together and covered her chest with her arms, hiding as much of herself as she could.</p><p>Holding the swirling amulet in one fair skinned hand, she looked up at Aegon, her amber almond eyes apologetic and pitiful, and reached out to touch him. Aegon didn't know whether to accept her or back away, but his body didn't allow him to move, and his heart didn't allow him to act on the anger inside.</p><p>Her soft small hands gently gripped his face, as she looked up from her shorter vessel into his purple eyes. "I must show you. Nothing more I can say can explain this. I must show you. Be still."</p><p>Her eyes spun into golden-yellow swirls, searing and flashing into his with a vision from her own thoughts. A soft surrender from his already affected mind allowed the young beauty to infiltrate his thoughts, and as he stood there half in a trance, he began to see the vision she forced into him.</p><p>It was like his dreams, flashes of visions that made little sense, at least at first. Surrounding him was the dense jungle of southern Leng. He had never seen it before, but the knowledge was inherent in the vision, as if it was someone else's perspective. He was on horseback, and as he looked down, he was in the body of a young woman with the same complexion and skin tone as the woman before him.</p><p>He heard a voice narrate the scene as his horse picked up its trot.</p><p>
  <em>Little more than three decades ago, a young woman, my mother, was traveling to Turrani through the Southern Forest to rendezvous with a business associate of my Grandfather.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Gia Noon, or as she became known, the Lost Maiden.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Like many fathers, hers intended to marry her into wealth. He sought wealth greater than his; a wealth that would change the fortunes for his entire line. So, she traveled from Leng Ma to Turrani with her attendants and guard to meet with Yusef Nan Bol, a Lengii Nobleman, dignitary, and wealthy merchant. Yusef was also the father of two sons: Hondo and Tantu.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Tantu was younger and known as a lesser match. It was Hondo who had already begun meeting with his father's trade partners, including my grandfather Shou Noon. All Tantu was known for were the rumors of his involvement with the illegal slave trade just north of the city and its surrounding villages. No one dared make known of their suspicions officially or in front of Yusef, but whispers turned to gossip and the elite of Turrani all treated the young man in regards more to his reputation than his station.</em>
</p><p>Aegon looked around him, suspended in this dream like state. What he saw was more like something that had already happened than a premonition of something yet to. He felt the horse beneath him swaying and breathing. He could smell the forest air heavy with the scent of rain. He could hear the calls of birds and the buzz of insects. He could taste the sweat beading on his upper lip.</p><p>The vision blurred by him like some great arm picked him from time and rushed him forward. As his indiscriminate form catapulted through his projected surroundings, the narration continued.</p><p>
  <em>When she reached the city, she was greeted by a young man. He introduced himself as Hondo Nan Bol and was surrounded by a group of attendants and guards large enough to make her entrance feel like a parade.</em>
</p><p>The vision dropped to him witnessing the young man and his welcoming party open the gates to the city. Standing at the head of the party, the greeter projected an air of nobility and prestige. He was tall and slender wearing a feathered vest over his doublet with purple and green feathers, starkly contrasting the light orange silk that made up his tunic, and the deep indigo of his loose-fitting flowing pants. He wore gold rings in his ears and his brow, and when he smiled, his bright white teeth glistened against his deep teak complexion. The young man seemed to shine in the Southern Lengii sun, and Aegon felt strange ties to the vision as if he remembered it.</p><p><em>This is a memory. It has the feelings of something someone remembers. </em>He thought. <em>I am seeing someone else's life played out before me.</em></p><p>The crowded city within the tall Iron Gate was vast and crawling with people. The bright colors of banners and linens that hung from the windows of the tightly packed stone buildings created a tapestry of life like Aegon had never seen. Cobbled stone streets wound their way over and through the rolling hilly ground, and the bustle of the markets and townsfolk was as evident to each of his five senses.</p><p>He could nearly taste the freshly cooked food, hear the boisterous bartering, feel the heat that radiated from the crowds within, and he could smell the filth that plagued all large cities. More than anything, though, he could see Turrani. The sight was as beautiful as it was foreign, and though he had seen countless cities and ports in his time, Turrani was like nowhere else he'd been to.</p><p>There was a desperation in its vibrancy. There was an urgency in its bustle. Something about the city bubbled up from beneath its colorful veneer, a grave and unsettling feeling that was hard to explain and harder to quantify. But in the vision, as Aegon looked through the young woman's eyes at the young man greeting her, he could feel the tension. He could taste the revolution.</p><p>"Lady Noon, I presume," the greeting noble said, bowing in a queer way and offering his hand palm up as some kind of greeting customary for Southern Leng.</p><p>From his perspective, Aegon could not see Gia Noon. He saw <em>as </em>her, so her reactions and expressions were invisible, but her feelings and thoughts were part of his experience as he witnessed it.</p><p>She responded with a curt gesture of her own hand, as Aegon saw the arm extending forcefully, almost reluctantly towards the greeter without as much as an approving sound.</p><p>"We are happy to have such a lovely guest to our beautiful city. Please. Come with me as we prepare you a place in the magistrate's palace. We are excited to commence our meetings with you."</p><p>"Though your generosity is appreciated, know my attendants and I are to meet with Lord Nan Bol and little else. This is not a trip for pleasure, my Lord. It is a trip for business."</p><p>"From what I've learned, the business is you, my Lady. That being said, I will try to make the business you're here for as pleasurable as appropriate."</p><p>Aegon felt the warmth in Gia as she continued her back and forth with the man that introduced himself as Hondo Nan Bol. His looks and charm had begun to open up the idea of her enjoying her arranged betrothal, a thought she'd never considered, and the sound of a pleasurable journey seemed all the more interesting now that she had at least met the man her father intended her to marry.</p><p>The vision blurred as Aegon was once again snatched out of the scene and pulled across to new ones. Vignettes of moments cycled around him, trapped in another's memories, and witnessing the past in brief but telling images of what once was.</p><p>The voice began to narrate as he tried to witness what was happening.</p><p>
  <em>The man who greeted her began courting her, bringing her to landmarks, shopping with her in markets, and eating with her in the magistrate's palace hall, dining on a small feast he claimed to organize himself.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The man was kind and warm. He was playful and spontaneous. His laugh was as infectious as his smile, and as she spent more time with him, she grew to admire him more than she could have imagined before arriving.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>As the sun set on the palace, Gia Noon felt as if she'd taken the place of a Lady from a children's tale. Though neither was royal, she felt like a princess, and despite all that happened later, she still remembered the day fondly.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>That night became something else entirely.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Not once during her day with the greeter had she even thought of Yusef. That evening, however, it became clear that he had nothing to do with the day's events. She assumed Hondo was acting on Yusef's behalf, as she did not travel to Turrani to negotiate herself. Her lead attendant and guard, Homino Yeun, was to meet with Yusef and handle the discussion. Her presence was merely to show her beauty, but as day turned to night, the official business of the trip and its ramifications started to come to the front of her mind.</em>
</p><p>"Come with me, my sweet. Let us finish today's events with something more . . . memorable." The greeter offered his hand as he walked towards a stairway that lead to the noble apartments.</p><p>"You forget yourself, my Lord. I have attendants and belongings that must need be housed before I retire, and to be clear, I will be retiring in an apartment alone. Thank you."</p><p>"After all you've seen of my city, that is what you have for me? The cold an abrupt refusal of my offer to spend more time? I mean you no harm, my Lady."</p><p>"Harm you may not mean, my Lord. But you do not mean to leave me idly lay in a bed for the night now do you?"</p><p>"A maiden as beautiful as you should never be left to lie idly in bed."</p><p>"Just as I thought. And like I said, I have official business to attend to. Business that I have spent enough time avoiding in your childish pursuit of my maidenhead. It was a distinct pleasure to discover Turrani with you, until, that is, you meant to plant your flag in my field."</p><p>"No flags, my Lady. Just more company. More time. If you deny my request, I will humbly accept your refusal. I know not of where you'll stay, however. You were intended to stay here, with me."</p><p>"Isn't your manse on the other side of the city?"</p><p>"That is my father's manse."</p><p>"Your father's manse is different from your own?"</p><p>A booming voice burst through the doors of the great hall before the speaker, it seemed. "What is the meaning of this!" The man was elder and tall, like the greeter, with a filled out chest and more elaborate gold in his face and ears. He wore similar colors to the greeter, but upon his head, he wore a turban like silken hat with three large feathers; one green, one blue, and one golden yellow. His voice was as deep as it was strained, as the sound of his words matched the anguish on his face as he belted out, "How dare you!"</p><p>"Father," the greeter said. "I am showing our guest the city and palace."</p><p>"Tontu, we were to welcome the Lady Noon to our residence, not your pleasure den."</p><p>
  <em>Gia had thought the man she'd met, the man she'd spent the entire day with, was the eldest son of Yusef Nan Bol, Hondo. In fact, the man she'd spent time with was the younger of the two, Tontu; the rumored villain of the Sunken Forest.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Yusef promptly reprimanded his second son and apologized to Lady Noon for the misleading way in which he met and courted her. Gia rightfully felt betrayed, violated even, and though she was beginning to like the man that had greeted her, she just as quickly began to hate him for his deceit.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Tontu forever remembered that day and the final words Lady Noon had for him.</em>
</p><p>" I don't know what is more pathetic? That you had to lie about who you were to try to impress me, or that you are so little of a man you'd invoke your own brother's name in such a farce? A fool's errand indeed, for even if you did manage to deflower me, as I assume was your plan, my father would never allow me to marry a lowlife like you. I am incensed at your attempt at such a lowly deceit, however, I am most angry with myself. Your brother or not, you are disgusting and vile. It is I that should be most ashamed for ever allowing my mind to think of you as anything more than gutter trash."</p><p>
  <em>As she said them, her remarks almost cut her own ego, knowing that just moments earlier she was almost willing to join him in bed. She said them with the malice of a jilted lover, and the immaturity of a unflowered maid. She said them without a second thought and in vengeance for wasting her time. If she knew what they would mean for her future, however, she would have held her tongue. She would have said nothing at all.</em>
</p><p>Aegon was once again plucked from the scene and vaulted through Gia's memory to another moment, then another.</p><p>
  <em>Tontu's actions helped Gia's case in the negotiations with Yusef, as the nobleman was left in the position of shame and had to amend for it. He accepted the betrothal and returned half of the wealth promised to him as the dowry, in recompense for the embarrassment caused by the indecent manipulation by the second son.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Gia left the dignitary's manse with a victorious grin and her head held high, thankful for her loyal attendant's ability to take advantage of the merchant's remorse. Homino proved as worthy a negotiator as he'd proven to be a fighter, giving far less than promised for a match with the second wealthiest bachelor in the entirety of Leng.</em>
</p><p>Aegon was snatched again, and then dropped back into the forest as he was atop the horse again, surrounded by dark wood on either side of a tight trail.</p><p>
  <em>Her fortunes shifted just as quickly as she returned home, for on the Jade Road going north, those with carts and litters were forced to divert through one valley in particular, a valley that until this day is haunted by the thousands lost to the Jackals.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The Valley of the Twisted Scythe.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Within the Valley, hills and tightly packed foliage force parties to ride one by one, exposed to attack on both sides. Homino, despite over thirty years of service in the personal Guard of Shou Noon, hadn't ever traveled to Turrani, so he did not plan their return route properly. He ignorantly chose to travel through the Valley at night. A decision he'd regret for the rest of his life.</em>
</p><p>A branch snapped in the darkness, and as Aegon turned toward where he heard it, a rush of attackers blitzed in from the other side. The vision flashed, and another scene of Homino trading steel with a long legged attacker appeared.</p><p>Homino managed to maintain his footing and kept his ground, somehow unhorsed and in the thick of a battle. Around him, the remaining guard fought valiantly, forming a circular formation and holding the attacking Legs at bay, for a time.</p><p>Gia was in the middle of the formation of guards, surrounded on all sides by attackers in red cloaks, vanishing in and out of the shadows like ghosts. Aegon, still watching from Gia's perspective, couldn't count how many attackers were engaged with the ten guards around him, as they darted in and out of site, slashing with bronze short swords and striking with leather wrapped staffs.</p><p>His eyes swayed to Homino, focusing on him and his battle with a certain red robed attacker. Homino seemed wider than he was tall, with thin steel armor covering his shoulders and chest. He wore no helm and no hair, his bald pale head resembling a boiled egg atop his broad shoulders. His burly arms struck with force, but lacked quickness, and with every strike of his sword, Aegon instinctively found an opening he could have exploited if he were the attacker. Luckily for Homino, the assailants seemed less than skilled, and looked as if they were trying to confuse the guards more than defeat them.</p><p>"Don't lose ground. Stand strong, men! We must protect the young Maiden!" Homino yelled between clashes with the assailant's bronze sword. The guards heard his impassioned plea and parried the subsequent attacks with more vigor, inspired by his words, until a spear flew in from the shadows of the forest, sinking deep into Homino's neck. He dropped to his knees as Gia gasped. Aegon could feel the fear and sorrow in her wail, as he witnessed the brutal end of the guard he could feel Gia had a close bond with.</p><p>She screamed out, reaching for the falling body from her horse as if she could catch him, only to see the rest of the circle fall guard by guard. Aegon felt the rush of momentum as someone grabbed Gia from behind, and once again the vision shifted.</p><p>
  <em>She was bound and thrown into a burlap sack as the attackers carried her deeper into the darkest section of the Sunken Forest.</em>
</p><p>Aegon's vision opened to the dingy brown sack around her head and the scratchy frayed burlap itching his face. He heard chanting and smelled fire and assumed it was the camp the narrator spoke of. In moments, the sack was pulled off and she was face to face with a queerly painted attacker.</p><p>His face was painted with the same White Paste the Painted Skull used, though the markings were nondescript as far as he could see. His wide malicious smile and sinister brown eyes looked as he meant to evoke fear in the young maiden. Slaver dripped from his unruly jaws as he hooted and called near enough to her face that Aegon could smell the teeth rotting in the back of his mouth and feel the heat of his breath as he tried to intimidate her.</p><p>An orange glow from the fire behind him framed his maniacal expression like that of a fever dream, and the chants around her rose to loud crescendo, then stopped, abruptly and silently as the fire went out and the face before her disappeared into the darkness.</p><p>Lower chanting rumbled from the dark in a dialect Aegon had never heard before. Aegon could feel her arms and legs gripped by invisible arms, as the ropes that bound her were loosened, then stretched to open her silk robed form. Still in the pitch black, he could feel six or seven hands moving over her, barely touching her, frightening her beyond belief. He could almost hear Gia's inner thoughts, fearing an impending rape, as the hands began to tug gently at the cloth of her robe and the chants continued in a low monotonous hum of words neither he nor she could understand.</p><p>"Os noo cumon ga, ex seese tell or!" a voice shouted. It sounded both far away and extremely close. Aegon couldn't figure out why or how. "Oo nah cumon cuh taht ah noo. Eese cumon that ah Nan!"</p><p>Aegon could feel the anxious fear rise in Gia, as the body was lifted into the air. It wasn't hands, and it wasn't the rope, but somehow, her body ascended, and even Aegon started to shutter at the abrupt movements surrounding them in the darkness.</p><p>Her body reclined, so that it felt as though she was staring into the dark sky. The entire forest around them was covered by thick canopy, so even the dim light from the stars and the moon failed to filter through. He and She were surrounded by total darkness, floating or being pulled; it seemed, by some unexplainable entity.</p><p>
  <em>In that moment, Gia made peace with her demise. But just after that moment, a savior seemingly appeared from the dark and carried her away to what she thought was safety.</em>
</p><p>In the black abyss, Aegon heard the clash of steel and the war cries of an attacker. A steady commotion followed and continued for a short time, accented with the ringing song of swords and the death throes of the men who captured the Young Maiden. <em>I thought she was captured and sold, </em>Aegon thought, remembering Kaono mention this moment in Lengii history he was witnessing firsthand.</p><p>Aegon felt her body grabbed again, and whisked away on what felt like horseback. Strong arms wrapped around her, as Aegon felt the woman begin to calm, almost joyful for her rescue. The darkness was as black as it had ever been, so she couldn't see who saved her. All she knew, as Aegon perceived it, was that she was saved. Safe once again.</p><p>His arms jostled her small body and planted her on the back of his horse as the dark steed galloped away. She couldn't yet see, but she could hear other horses galloping next to them, somehow able to navigate the forest in the dark. Her wrists were still bound but untethered, so she reached her arms around her savior and squeezed herself close to him. She could feel the strength in his frame, pleased by his muscular form.</p><p>Fantasies of what the man looked like started to fill her head. She was but a young maiden, still, and the rush of fear and now elation of her safety brought all sorts of feelings and emotions she struggled to keep up with. She slid up in her seat, holding herself closer to him, her legs tight around his, and her body against his back. Her hands opened to feel the definition of his chest and she smiled, pleased with what she felt. She could still not see, but in her mind, a picture of what she hoped he looked like was as clear to Aegon as anything else in the vision.</p><p>After a short ride, the forest canopy cleared enough for moonlight to slip through. The dim beams made it possible to make out the shapes of what was around her at least. Four men on horseback galloped beside her and her hero, their dark cloaks swaying in the wind as their horses rushed by.</p><p>Suddenly, they all stopped, halting their gallop and circling another makeshift camp. Tents were set up around a dwindling fire, and as the horses approached, men started to peek out to see what the commotion was.</p><p>Everyone that gathered wore the same black cloaks, most with their hoods up. Those that didn't, had the same dark skin as most Legs, their heads smooth. All were men. And all were staring at Gia and her savior.</p><p>Her savior swung his legs over and hopped off of his horse, his dark hood still up, mysteriously hiding the face she was so anxious to see. He turned and faced her, offering a hand to help her down. She accepted it and giddily jumped into his arms.</p><p>He shook his head to lower his hood.</p><p>
  <em>Tontu.</em>
</p><p>"'Tis a pleasure to make your acquaintance once again, my Lady," he said, smiling.</p><p>Gia didn't know what to feel. Thankful? Frightened? Nervous? She wasn't sure the young man's intentions, but some part of her didn't care. She felt close to certain death just moments earlier, and scum or not, Tontu was handsome, charming, and had saved her.</p><p>"The pleasure is mine, my Lord. Please forgive my last words to you. I spoke in anger, and did truly enjoy our time together."</p><p>"No need for forgiveness, you spoke it mostly true," Tontu said with a sly smile. "I did mean to take your maidenhead."</p><p>"After saving me, it is yours, my Lord," she said, her heart nervously beating through her chest, as she both meant what she said and feared what it meant.</p><p>"Are you truly a maiden, my Lady?" he asked.</p><p>"At the moment, yes. I still am," she replied, coyly smiling at her savior.</p><p>"Then unfortunately for me," he started to say, looking to the men that were gathering around him, "enjoying what you offer would only serve to devalue you." He looked to two men near him and nodded as Gia began to realize what was happening.</p><p>"You <em>are </em>a Jackal, then?" she asked, starting to frantically back away aimlessly into the dark forest around her.</p><p>"My sweet and lovely flower," he said, smiling in the light of a torch he had just grabbed, "I am <em>The </em>Jackal. Seize her quickly and try not to mark her up. She's worth much more as beautiful as she is now than if she were damaged."</p><p>
  <em>The Jackals sold their merchandise in the Western and Eastern Bays just up the Southern coast of Leng. In the west, they'd sell to merchants from Slaver's Bay and Greater Moraq. In the east, The Golden Crest, they sold to all manner of types. Gia, a maiden, matched a specific special and rare request.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>A sorcerer from Asshai made known to Tontu his desperate wish to have and work on a Yit maiden, preferably of noble descent and beautiful. Gia was not initially the woman Tontu meant to capture, however, as he explained in great detail as he shipped her like chattel to The Crest. Most abductions were business, brutal and sometimes bloody business, but business all the same. He took little pride in how he'd earned his fortune, but couldn't help from reaping the riches there for the taking.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Gia's abduction was of a far more personal nature.</em>
</p><p>"As your beautifully privileged lips scolded me a few days ago, I reveled in their harshness; the impunity in which you spoke. Your words of disdain were as intoxicatingly brave as they were purposely hurtful, and though I felt the initial shame from their sting, after a short time, I came to admire your gall. You knew not of my nature, yet you so perfectly provoked the deepest sins within me to rise to my surface. Yits are all the same. You live in our land and act as if you're above us. Legs are not only stronger, faster, and more hardened than any Yit, we are so devastatingly desperate to regain our former glory, we will do almost <em>anything. </em>Especially if it's <em>to </em>Yits."</p><p>Aegon felt Gia's heart sink. It was just fluttering in childish glee, fawning over her savior. Within a few moments and a few words, she was bound again and being led to an uncertain and grave future. A future that was now the past.</p><p>
  <em>Tontu's betrayal ended with a handshake and an exchange, as the man Gia later learned was Vikarro Tachsman, a sorcerer from Asshai, paid twelve full sacks of gold for the noble maiden.</em>
</p><p>Aegon saw a brief flash in his vision of the handshake as Tontu, dressed in all black with a black cloak, grasped the pallid hand of a similarly garbed tall shadow of a man on a decrepit dock with the raging sea behind them. The sorcerer was mostly hidden by his loose flowing black garb, but Aegon could see the insidious smile through the shadow beneath his hood, as Gia was paraded before him as if she was no more than fresh produce. He nodded in approval and had his men carry the bound and barely clothed maiden to his ship.</p><p>
  <em>Vikarro was pleased with the transaction, Tontu even more so. The sorcerer relished finding a worthy subject to practice his foul sorcery. Tontu was able to earn more money on one woman than he did his entire enterprise while also settling a personal vendetta. Both men left the docks smiling, and Gia never saw her father again.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Gia spent years under the spells of the sorcerer, as he used his thirty years of experience with magic, and her virgin body, to create life from her womb using only sorcery. Trial after trial proved painful, bloody, and unsuccessful. Gia was tormented day and night as her insides were worked on, expanded, cut into, and finally enchanted.</em>
</p><p>Aegon saw flashes of moments, all which had the dark hooded figure waving his hands and gesturing over the bound body of Gia Noon. These images were not from the woman's perspective, but from above, as if she or he was witnessing the brutal display out of her body. Aegon didn't know whether it was the way she perceived her torture or not, but wondered to himself if that's how he'd cope with it.</p><p>The dark setting of his work, the cold damp air, and the chilling steel contraption that held her prostrated for access to her insides kept cycling through as new images shuffled to the forefront of Aegon's sight. Aegon seemed to witness each failed attempt all compressed into a momentary flash of memory, feeling each agonizing and torturous moment as though he was her, if only for the briefest of moments.</p><p>
  <em>After four hundred-eighty three unsuccesful trials, two failed pregnancies, a still born that resembled more creature than man, and incalculable number of atrocities done to the poor maiden, Vikarro was finally successful in bringing life to this world using only his magic. Mine.</em>
</p><p>Aegon witnessed the sorcerer pulling an infant babe from the maiden as the dark cold chamber echoed the horrible screams of pain from Gia's labor.</p><p>
  <em>Each agonizing moment of the three years, Gia Noon focused only on her hatred for Tontu. Over time, that hatred for Tontu evolved to a hatred for all Legs, as every member of the Jackals was Leg, and Vikarro himself appeared to be of some native Lengii descent. So, by the four hundred-eighty fourth trial, a success, she had already begun to hatch her plan for revenge. Not for the fallen Tontu, who was killed as the Jackal's Rebellion was quelled, but for all Legs. Every last one of them.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I was born of these atrocities. I am the product of the abominable acts of men. My only goal, my only purpose, is to bring vengeance to all Legs. My progress as Khiana leads inevitably to my death, and the death of all that oppose the Ancient Ones of YiTi.</em>
</p><p>From beyond the vision, Aegon heard a voice. It wasn't in the vision, but outside it, in their now.</p><p>"Your Holiness."</p><p>The call pulled Aegon out of the vision and in a moment, his own eyes were open, gazing into the face of the beautiful young Keeno Noon, <em>birthed of evil sorcery. </em>Her eyes opened to look into his, releasing his head from her soft grasp, and clasping the glowing amulet back around her neck.</p><p>With a shimmer and a flash of sparkling bright white light, she shifted back into the long, slender, and chocolate skinned body of the Empress. Her green eyes swirled just above Aegon's head as her now taller body looked slightly down at him. She forced a smile on her face, saying, "I serve my mother and those that would see Leng thrive. You have served me better than anyone could ask for, and I appreciate both the love you've shown me and our land. But, your knowledge in this was meant to give you a chance to join us willingly. I could feel that an impossibility while in your head. A shame."</p><p>Her green eyes swirled as he felt control of his body slipping away, though this time, he wasn't fading into the past consciousness of a Lost Maiden. He was floating just outside of his body, unable to control it in any way.</p><p>He was now what Akino was. And seemingly would be until . . . until something changed. Something that he had no control of.</p><p>"Your Holiness," the voice said again. An Imperial Guard he did not recognize hopped into the cart.</p><p>"Your Holiness. We have reached the Crossing. The party from Leng Ma approaches as we speak."</p><p>Aegon couldn't move. He couldn't speak. He could only think of how fucked he was.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you so much for reading.</p><p>I love to hear what people think of my work, and though I don't want to sound like I'm begging for feedback, with as ambitious and difficult a task I have undertaken writing this mostly original work, I am.</p><p>Please, if you have any thoughts, let me know.  I value my readers' thoughts and opinions very highly and truly want to create something that both entertains and provokes imagination.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Chapter 23</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>23</p><p>
  <em>Who is she really?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>What is she?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>What am I going to do?</em>
</p><p>Aegon could only think.</p><p>Stuck in the prison of her making, Aegon watched his lifeless body stand stone silent as she paraded around as Khiana, walking back and forth from the wine skin and clothing trunk of her cart.</p><p>His neck twitched, as he looked from above, suspended in the air and witnessing himself as if he were still in Gia Noon's memory of the torture chamber in Asshai.</p><p>Except this was his reality. This vantage point would be his new perception.</p><p>"Don't struggle so hard," she said, her long legs carrying her from one side of the cart to the other in a step or two. "Anyone who sees you will think you mad or worse." She stroked the side of his face gently with a caring caress, staring lovingly into his eyes with her own mystical ones. "This will not be your forever, just give me some time to think of the best solution to our problem."</p><p>In his head, he could hear the thoughts of his response fighting to reach his lips, finally and justifiably enraged over her abuse of power over him. But with all his will, he could only manage to release a harsh breath, and barely enough sound to be considered a whisper, as his body remained horrifyingly still.</p><p>His upper lip quivered as he tried to force his will to move it, but the green eyes of his Empress swirled, and her power was far too strong for him to overcome her spell. Part of him longingly gazed into the beauty of the emerald orbs as they moved, attracted blindly to their bright and glorious hue. A part locked deep within his psyche fought to lash out to strike her. He was proud of neither emotional reaction.</p><p>"You fight harder and better than any other, my love," <em>How dare you say that? How dare you think this love, witch! </em>"But in the end, you will do nothing but twitch about like you have a sickness." The stroke of her soft brown hand slowly slid down from his cheek to his chest, as she stepped close enough for an embrace that never came. "Relax and succumb to the peace I've given you," she said in that familiarly smooth voice. "Ease your mind and focus on how we'll succeed in our mission. One way or another, Aegon Velaryon, you will serve our Ancient Purpose. You will be my savage right hand in the war to come."</p><p>
  <em>I fight for honor and justice, woman. I will never fight for you!</em>
</p><p>"Ah, but you will," she said aloud, walking back to where she kept her wine to take another gulp of a sweet smelling red.</p><p>
  <em>What?</em>
</p><p>"I can hear what's inside your head, my love, as I currently reside there as well. It is not easy to control two bodies, but if I sever your control, at least I can focus on one at a time. Your constant thoughts only crowd my own, but it was useful to learn of the Red Robes within the Magistrate's party. I sympathize with your view of them. I too feel for the young boy, what was his name?"</p><p>As agitated as his mind was, Aegon's face and body remained as still as a frozen puddle. He felt as cold as one too.</p><p>
  <em>Binny. The boy's name is Binny.</em>
</p><p>"What a peculiar name. Binny. Hmm. Anyway, as you boil over with anger over the loss of his family," <em>And every woman and child in the village, wench! </em>"Yes, over them too, know that I sympathize."</p><p>
  <em>And what does that mean?</em>
</p><p>The ease in which their conversation continued frightened Aegon almost as much as anything in his life previous. Out of control of his physical form, trapped in the air outside of his own consciousness, he feared more for what Keeno would learn from his mind than what she might do to his body. She had already done so much.</p><p>He tried to guard his thoughts, but realized the task harder than almost anything. All he was were his thoughts in those moments.</p><p>"It means I will not shed more blood on the matter. My orders were as I was told. I was told to send Hanse to root out the rest of their camp. I did not know the camp would be nothing but innocents."</p><p>
  <em>And who orders an Empress?</em>
</p><p>"I'm in your head, Aegon, not the other way around. I will give you the answers you desire when the time calls for it. Until then, I will allow the Red Robes to leave back into the forest, with a solemn apology and promise for recompense. I can never bring back their dead," <em>They believe they can. "</em>but I can absolve them of further punishment for their attack on our train, which indeed warranted retaliation."</p><p>
  <em>You provoke every attack against you with your words and deeds. This journey was always meant to be something to divide this land, not unite it.</em>
</p><p>"Yes. However, the South is not as innocent as you naively hope it to be."</p><p>
  <em>Innocent and guilty are not one in the same. Though they may not be innocent, surely you cannot believe they need to die?</em>
</p><p>"Do they all deserve to be killed? I would say no, but my mother," <em>if that is what you would call her, </em>"would disagree."</p><p>Each exchange of words and thoughts back and forth felt more invasive than the last. Though her lips moved, it felt as if her own thoughts mixed with Aegon's as she spoke. <em>What is the nature of this possession?</em></p><p>A member of the guard called to Khiana from outside the cart. "Your Holiness?" he said, patiently waiting just beyond the curtain for her response.</p><p>"Just a moment," she responded.</p><p>"As many as you need, Your Holiness. However, I'm here only to inform you of a formal request from the Leng Ma party's leader."</p><p>"Magistrate Soon, I presume," she asked, still walking back and forth from her dressing trunk to the wineskin.</p><p>"I do not believe so, Your Holiness."</p><p>
  <em>What? Kaono no longer leads his host? What happened?</em>
</p><p>"Very well. Inform whomever it is I will be just a few more moments." She finished the wine in the skin, wiped her mouth, and looked back at Aegon with a look of puzzlement. <em>The stress of this is weighing on her. Maybe I have a chance to convince her of the righteous path.</em></p><p>She moved toward Aegon, with sultry deliberate strides, almost crossing her legs with each step. "You can try all you'd like to lead me in the direction you think best," she said, gripping Aegon's manhood firmly but without malice. "But it just so happens that I can lead you more effectively." His body then walked to the edge of her bed, quickly dropped his breeches, and stood idly waiting for her next command.</p><p>Aegon could only watch helplessly as his body moved without agency. He could feel the motion of his muscles. When his pants dropped, he could feel the air on his exposed legs and member. He could even feel his chest rise and fall with each breath, but he couldn't control anything except his thoughts.</p><p>Khiana, or Keeno, or whoever, then dropped down to her knees as if to pleasure him. "You can't say that I don't arouse and please you, can you?"</p><p>
  <em>I find no pleasure in this if I cannot take part. I find no arousal in this if it is without my consent.</em>
</p><p>"Tell that to him, my love." She had Aegon's head look down. His body was certainly aroused.</p><p>
  <em>I don't want it. Not from you. Not until you free me and we settle this.</em>
</p><p>"I tried that, Aegon. I allowed you to act freely. Though you kept me safe, you failed me. You allied with mine own enemies and conspired against me while on a mission to assure my safety. Empress or not in truth, you acted upon my Holy orders and defied me." She hovered around his member, appearing as if she'd eventually begin to pleasure it, looking at it directly as she continued. "I know the feelings you had for me in this form are true. I could feel the passion in our times together.I hope we can rekindle those feelings again, though, if you are as honorable as you say, maybe I just make you an authentic member of the Imperial Guard. I'm sure this is sharp enough to cut clean through." She reached for his hip, glancing her long dainty finger on the hilt of the dirk.</p><p>
  <em>As honorable as I may be. . .</em>
</p><p>"Very well then. I will assume our love making is not that upsetting you'd rather lose this than be at my side," she planted a soft kiss on its head and stood back up. "You may pull your pants back up, my love." She waited and watched as he stood motionless. "Oh, that's right," she said with a grin. "You're not in the right mind to do so alone. Allow me to assist." She pulled his pants up herself, gingerly tying the laces in the front. "Let us meet with whomever leads this train. Surely Kaono is wise enough to have at least sent a respectable noble in his place. I will be sorely disappointed if this party is not representative of Leng Ma's potential military prowess."</p><p>Aegon could do nothing but think his obligatory agreement and try to hide the fear what had become of Kaono Soon.</p><p>Aegon's body followed the woman like a shadow, silent and just behind her. A general uneasiness about his situation was amplified more so by the news that Kaono himself didn't lead the train.</p><p>
  <em>What happened then to the men of the Red Robes? Did that old fool abandon me with this imposter Empress to hide in his Palatial Estate on the coast? Did the assassins finally get to him now that he was unguarded?</em>
</p><p>He could hear the answer from Keeno in his head, as Khiana walked regally and silently to meet with the caravan's leader. <em>Calm yourself sweet Aegon. I'm sure Kaono is fine. At least until I find he's been complicit in your treason as well.</em></p><p>Wearing a ceremonial green and blue dress, garnished with her shining gold trinkets, and her amulet, the woman wearing the Empress' clothes confidently made her way past the assembled guards and nobles of both trains to meet their party's leader. The normally enticing shape of Khiana's voluptuous body looked as good as it had ever in truth, but given the circumstances, the full curves of her tall and body repulsed him.</p><p>
  <em>How could I have ever fallen so quickly into the honeypot of this false god? What would Nahknani say if she could see me now?</em>
</p><p>Keeno's avatar of the young Leg Goddess was so striking, members of both trains couldn't help but bend their necks full circle in order to catch a glimpse of her radiance as she walked by. Aegon could only watch from outside of his body, his soulless vessel mindlessly following her around like Akino used to.</p><p>"Your Holiness! 'Tis a distinct pleasure to be meeting with you again," a slippery voice greeted from out of sight. Aegon immediately recognized the disingenuous tone just before the slight and snakelike man walked into view.</p><p>"ReGar, I believe," she said, acknowledging the gray skinned man as he approached, garbed in a traditional gold and blue robe of his own, his long thin sword sheathed on his hip.</p><p>"And now you make me blush remembering my name. Gorgeous choice of dress, by the way. I hope you're not disappointed that you're only greeted by the lowly likes of me."</p><p><em>Lowly indeed </em>Aegon thought.</p><p>"And Your Honor," ReGar said, turning to Aegon's body. "No annoyingly witty quip?"</p><p>"No, Your Honor," his body responded as Aegon heard Khiana's own voice in his head as she concentrated on speaking for him.</p><p>"Well that is certainly a relief. Well done taming this one, Your Holiness. From our interactions, I thought him to be impossible."</p><p>"Impossible, maybe, but all things in life worth doing are difficult, no?"</p><p>"Truer words are not often spoken, Your Holiness."</p><p>"Enough with the pleasantries, Your Honor, if you can manage that. What is the reason you lead this train and not the Magistrate?"</p><p>"Pleasantries are most of what I can offer the likes of a deity such as yourself, so forgive me my wastefulness. I know your time is of the utmost value."</p><p>"On with it, man. Why do you lead this train?"</p><p>"Very well, and my apologies. In truth, I was to ask your man of it first, but since you've made your will clear, I will not further hesitate. The Magistrate is under arrest for treason and his co-conspirator is none other than your esteemed guard Aegon the Valaryian."</p><p><em>Aegon </em>she said, whispering to his head.</p><p>
  <em>What?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Answer him. Answer him with your own body. Say anything other than a simple response and I'll retake control to make you look unbelievable. Try anything, and you know what I threaten next.</em>
</p><p>"If you have an accusation, make it Sheepshin," Aegon said, smiling. It felt good to be back inside himself, if only for a moment. Then it was gone. As soon as he could feel himself again, she snatched him right back out.</p><p>"This, your Holiness, is no mere accusation," ReGar said, ignoring Aegon and keeping focus on her. "This is an official charge. The proof is right here." ReGar removed a rolled-up cloth from his sleeve and unraveled it for the Empress. "In my hands I hold the message a man claiming to be from the refugee village of Fire worshipers gave to the Magistrate just a day and half ago. A man called Jhat originally claimed to want to join our train and follow on-foot. As the man in charge of the baggage train at the rear, it was I that was closest to these travelers, and noticed their unusual markings."</p><p>Nobles from both trains were circling the exchange, intently watching Keeno's form for her Holy response to these charges. Aegon could feel the pressure on Keeno's tall brown shoulders weighing heavily, as the young Yit inside the Empress' emotions started to share her captive's consciousness.</p><p>While she was steely focused in the cart, concentrating solely on keeping him out of her own head, he had access to nothing. He could not hear her thoughts nor feel her emotions. He struggled to hear or feel himself.</p><p>With her Holy duties before her and the pressure from the growing crowd, her focus was more on what she needed to do and less on controlling him. So, as she began to think and act focusing less and less on keeping control, it was as if both of their beings were able to merge. All of her and all of him became the same, and things she tried to hide from him, poured into a full understanding in his head. He could feel what she felt for her Land, her duty, her mission, her mother, him, and her inevitable death.</p><p>"My sources from your train had informed me of the attack from the Fire worshipers, and when I put it together, I approached Kaono with the information, hoping he would help in quelling the threat before they could get to you. When I entered his cart, however, he was meeting with the one they call Jhat, explaining to him about the man who sent him and their plans to seek revenge on you," he continued, raising his sniveling voice to involve the crowd in aiding his conviction of two foes.</p><p>"Enough, your Honor. I appreciate your fervor in ridding this land of traitors and for that I am thankful to have someone from such a low station seize a role in our governance as you have." The backhanded gratitude looked to irk ReGar as much as any quip Aegon had ever uttered, and though his own face couldn't smile, his soul must've grinned outside himself. "However, it is not the responsibility of an up jumped servant to dole out my justice. I must needs confer with the Magistrate to levy charges of my own if they are warranted."</p><p>"The Red Robes, as treasonous as they seem to be, do however make a great many interesting claims as well, Your Holiness. And I would be remiss to keep these accusations from the public of Leng."</p><p>"Careful where you lead yourself. You may not like where you end up," she said, hearing the veiled threat in his banter and opening her green eyes wide to address them in her own signature way.</p><p>She stared deep into the light gray of his pupils, her own swirling and glowing. Her gaze was as razor sharp as castle forged steel, cutting deep into the ReGar's beady eyed expression, seemingly attempting to compel him to stand down.</p><p>The Sheehin just stood silently, accepting the gaze unaffected. Aegon wasn't sure at first, until the slinky man leaned in his long thin neck with a sneaky reply. "Your mother was better than you, my sweet. Your tricks are hers, and will not work on a Sheehin."</p><p>His whispers shook Keeno, and Aegon could feel it. Inside her head, he resided, one with her and her feelings as she struggled to maintain control of him, her subjects favor, and her Holy veneer. He sympathized with her anguish, and implicitly identified with her as if he <em>was </em>her. Their consciousnesses seemed to be merging.</p><p>His vision flashed bright white and the scene reset. He couldn't explain it, but his perception felt somehow altered. <em>It must be because I have no eyes to see.</em></p><p>"Tricks aside, Your Honor, it is I who leads these people. Our people. If you know my mother's tricks, maybe you're aware of her will. Her will is to be done and if you stand in our way, it shall be your last stand."</p><p>"I am on your side, Your Holiness," he whispered. "I only mean to warn that these men who claim to be by your side will just as soon sneak behind and stab you in the back."</p><p>"Just know this, little man," she whispered leaning in close, taller than him by a whole head. "My country and my subjects are mine to do with as I please. Make no further public display of what you think you know, or I will use my mother's tricks on them to dispose of you."</p><p>"Your threat is acknowledged, young Lady Noon. Just remember your powers have limits." He raised his voice for the crowd to hear, "As you wish, Your Holiness. Though, I must insist the trial for these heathens take place in Leng Ma, for all of the former Magistrate's subjects to see him for the traitor he really is." He turned to the crowd, thinking he'd ignite a roar, when in truth, the surrounding nobles and on lookers barely raised their voices to a murmur.</p><p>"You misunderstand me, your Honor. I alone will ascertain the justice that needs be served. Bring those accused before me privately, and I will determine their guilt or innocence." Collectively, all in attendance turned back to see ReGar's response. The crowd seemed hesitant to fully support the former servant and foreigner.</p><p>"Your Holiness, if you please," ReGar stammered, losing the control he thought he had over the situation.</p><p>"Ser," a voice from the crowd interjected. "As a representative of the nobles of Leng Yi, desist with your aggressive posturing with our Empress. We are her people, not yours." The young noble stepped forth as if to better display himself to Khiana and the crowd. It was young Remoh Shing, again making his claim for the Empress' favor.</p><p>"Young Shing," she retorted directly to him. "Speak not for me. In Leng, no man needs speak for a woman, especially his Empress. I am more than any Man, I am a Goddess. Your support is as equally favored as the misguided Reamon Gardulos, however, the last thing I need is the backing of a man. ReGar is more than clear on my position, and needs no further persuasion."</p><p>"Indeed I am, Your Holiness. Where would you have me send the prisoners?"</p><p>Aegon felt Keeno's tense forehead and shoulders relax. <em>That threat is passed, for now.</em></p><p>The more they shared a mind, the more sympathetic Keeno's situation became for Aegon. He wasn't sure if his new emotions towards her were still tainted by her hold of him, but the information he became privy to while she deliberated with the Sheepshin allowed her situation to become clearer.</p><p>Flashes of visions, like the memories of Gia Noon, pulsed through his sight. Moments were captured in moving views sectioned off in the abyss of her mind like compartments of a ship's hull. Though, as he'd begin to focus on one, an abrupt blackness slammed down on him like a guillotine. For the briefest of moments, he saw a slight and stern Yit woman berating a young girl, raising an open hand. The shouts were in a language Aegon couldn't understand, and as the vision began to materialize, blackness shut him out.</p><p>His floating consciousness turned away from the dark, seeing another avenue to her past. He floated toward it, as another momentary flash of vision became clear. The same young girl, just a few years older, hunched down on her knees with her hands bound in front of a wooden pole. Her naked back shivered as she cowered away from a shadow behind him. Then, blackness shut him out, and as it did, he heard a loud crack like the snapping of a thick jungle branch, and felt harsh stinging in streaks down his back.</p><p>As she held on to Aegon with a queer and mystical power, Keeno herself seemed to be similarly held. It wasn't hard to imagine walking from compartment to compartment in her mind, as he instantly felt access to her thoughts, feelings, and even some memories in the forefront of her mind.</p><p>He walked toward the manifestation of a doorway. He tried to move into the compartment and was denied. The door, as it was, was locked and the entrance impassable.</p><p><em>What more does she hide from me? </em>The darkness around him seemed to funnel him in the opposite direction, though he couldn't understand how that concept applied in the vast darkness of her mind.</p><p>For all he could learn and feel, he couldn't see into her past beyond a few days and flashes of the distant past. He could not ascertain the truth of the murders and plot against the existing regime. <em>Who was r</em><em>esponsible for the murders of the Empress Khissara and Shinsou? Who were the perpetrators in the attempted murder of the Magistrate? The attackers wore amulets like Khiana's. Were they her people? Were the culprits people Aegon knew and never suspected?</em></p><p><em>Who orders the false Empress? Why is an Empress dead and another being impersonated? What greater purpose does this Imperial Progress serve? </em>One or entwined with Keeno's mind, he knew and could feel so much of who she was, but there was still so much left unknown.</p><p>After he turned away from the door, whatever he was began to spin, though nothing perceivable entered his vision. Whirring faces and words circled around him in an incoherent hurricane of experience. Aegon knew most of her general character innately now that the two were connected, but her past and the events that shaped her flooded his senses with an incoherent stream of moment after moment, uncontextualized, but with all the raw emotion and trauma as if he, for the briefest moment, became her.</p><p>His heart began to flutter in panic. <em>What is this around me and how could I hope to navigate it? There are no stars. No landmarks. No sun to rise and set. Only everything and nothing of her. Only nothing but every bit of me. </em>His thoughts wanted to reach for his chest, as he could feel his heart beating faster and faster. No hands. No chest. Nothing. His panic worsened.</p><p>Corporal punishments became routine, scars and soreness daily life, failure meant consequences worse than death, as Aegon experienced in the blink of an eye her entire life until she turned twelve.</p><p>Her tragedy was now, if only for a beat of his heart, his reality. Her tortured forming was now his painful past. And without fully believing why, he began to justify the morality of the monster currently possessing his physical form and imprisoning his consciousness. The monster guilty of the atrocity against the village innocents. The monster who for a still hidden reason, assembled a host for war within her own land, against her own people, in a land she claimed to rule.</p><p>She was an imposter. She was a tyrant. She wasn't even born of a man and woman, but from the womb of a virgin, tortured with experimental magic to please the whims of a struggling sorcerer at the end of his prime.</p><p>Yet as her life flowed through his senses, the history of her creation a long painful chain of tangible experience careening into and out of him in dizzying barrages of flashing visions, a calm acceptance helped slow his pounding chest. <em>There's goodness here. Simple and pure good.</em></p><p>His understanding sent waves through the darkness. A low foreboding growl pulsated around him, shaking his calm back into a stir. Rumbling clouds materialized and circled, like Khiana's eyes, but they were not green. Dark gray, almost black, smoke-like puffs rotated his perception, like the forming of a wind storm at sea, and the thick haze only grew denser as it swirled. The clouds sparkled with the forming lightning. Then, they crashed, but instead of bolts, lightning quickly blinked a face, cracking and momentarily lighting up all around him. Thunder boomed, and the face flashed again. Its expression was strained. Angered. Hauntingly so. And after it flashed, a blur of her eyes remained, burning through his nothingness with a ferocious glare.</p><p>The storm continued, until he could make out the face clearly. It was Keeno's true face, but older. It was harsher and fraught with anguish. It was wrinkled with age and hatred. Maniacally gleaming down at him, flashing in and out of the thick dark cloud encompassing his consciousness, the face frightened him at his basest level.</p><p>Without a body, without hands to wield swords, or legs to move him nimbly away, who was he to overcome a foe? Confidence normally made him fearless. In battle, he needed only trust in his instincts to overcome whatever obstacle, physically and magically.</p><p>In the abyss of Keeno's mind, without a form or belief in his wit, the sudden appearance of the enemy crippled any courage and crushed all confidence Aegon had left in his floating soul.</p><p><em>Gia Noon </em>he thought. Her gnarled and enraged face began chanting in a language unknown to him. Simultaneously, he felt an understanding of the words as the face and clouds dissipated and he could feel Keeno's presence mingling with his own.</p><p>Hers was a gentle and calming breeze, gently pushing the smokey haze and storm away until the darkness was now blank, and her scent, lavender, filled his perception of scent.</p><p>He floated down to a halt, surrounded by a blank white void, wearing his black leather Imperial Guardsmen armor with the dirk and twin dragon blades on his hilt. The visage of Khiana, in one of her sheer night gowns, floated down across from where he stood, her face looking as playfully as her frame.</p><p>A sincere smile stretched across her honey-colored cheeks and the deep dimple on her left side punctuated it with warmth. The frightening moments that just passed all but left him in the peace and sudden tranquility of his new setting. His mind struggled to focus, sensing a danger to the irrational serenity thrust upon him.</p><p>"Why wear her skin in your own mind?" he asked, fighting to keep control of his emotional response to the veil being forced over his eyes.</p><p>"I find her skin to be smoother," she said, baring her leg, "and there's so much more of it." She smiled like he'd grown used to.</p><p>"You speak of loving me, that I'm your love, but how could you love others when you don't even love yourself?" he asked. "My affections whenever genuine, were deeper than an attraction to your form." He floated closer to her. "Now that I know all of who you are, can I not at least see you in your true skin?"</p><p>She reached for the amulet, which Aegon thought unnecessary in a vision, and unclasped it from around her neck. She sparkled and shifted into the form of a young Yit girl, but not fully Keeno.</p><p>"You forget I know you. I know that this," he said gesturing to the smooth paler skin, unscarred and blemishless. "Show me. You say you want me at your side. Show me who you are," he said, reaching out for her smaller lighter skinned hand, "my love."</p><p>He could feel what she felt as he said it. Her face forced her smile back, as her posture changed almost dramatically as her skin, but Aegon could feel the tingling warmth in her reaction to his words.</p><p>In Khiana's skin, she was fierce, bold, and proud, ready to bare her nakedness confidently to the world. As Keeno, she was timid, ashamed, and guarded, constantly embracing herself as if to hide her form with her arms, huddled down with a slouched back and half turned as if she wanted to walk away.</p><p>As he took her hand and pulled her close, he could feel her reaction, cheerful tingling in the pit of her stomach, and her shoulders loosened ever so slightly, as his other arm wrapped around her and held the back of her head gently.</p><p>The hand in hers slowly climbed from her palm, to her wrist, then up her arm, gently acknowledging each healed lash, burn, and cut forever engraved into her skin.</p><p>He felt her opening her vulnerability to him, and he leaned into her for a kiss. Instead of their lips meeting, their floating forms merged and floated through and around the other.</p><p>"Don't think you're no longer a prisoner here until I decide otherwise," she said, as their forms circled and floated higher in the void.</p><p>"Don't think you're no longer a prisoner here either," he retorted, an easy accepting smile either natural or forced across his face. He didn't care to scrutinize the feeling further in the bliss of the moment.</p><p>"How much truth of me do you think you know, ser?"</p><p>"I am not and never claimed to have been knighted, my Lady."</p><p>"I am truly not from any acknowledged wealth or nobility, so I am no Lady either." Her true face shined through her humility and lit up the space around her. The radiance she emitted in both her aesthetic beauty and her inherent purity intoxicated him. He couldn't fight the overwhelming pull of her being, and they again, merged in an attempted kiss. Her heart warmed at the try. She too could feel his emotions. <em>Or is she the one controlling them?</em></p><p>"Free me and let me stand trial for these claims. Your land, does it believe or practice trail by combat?" he asked.</p><p>"Indeed it does. However, here we do not worship the seven. We worship the Empress, so it is I who makes the final judgement, not necessarily the steel of the combatants."</p><p>"Let me fight, then, and after, I will return to your progress."</p><p>"Though you speak it now, neither you nor I know if you'll truly return."</p><p>"I suppose you're right. All I know is the feelings within me now are the truth. I cannot hide from you as you can from me."</p><p>"I've spent a lot of time learning how to navigate this space."</p><p>"And I feel like I've been there beside you for most of it."</p><p>"You've seen some, not all. I could not keep you from the core of my memories, but you don't know half of what you think you do. You think in this moment you love me, and I love you, and nothing could be further from the truth."</p><p>"We've said or thought truth more times in this moment than in my entire life. What is truth if not the feelings we now share? What more is love than the togetherness of this moment?"</p><p>"You've fought within this plane well, Aegon, and that is why it is so difficult to control you. You are both strong and pure of heart. Even now, as your body stands silent and vacant, you see the goodness in me."</p><p>"Is your goodness a mirage?"</p><p>She thought and he could hear it. <em>It must be. I'm nothing more than the spawn of evil.</em></p><p>Regaining confidence in himself, Aegon imagined the cart they shared so many intimate nights in, and as he intensely visualized it, they were in it, a wine skin on her table, and the bed made the evening.</p><p>"You shouldn't recite the cruel words of your mother. You can decide who you are and what manner of humanity you live by." She was changed into the same sheer silk night gown Khiana would wear, adjusted for her smaller body, of course. He embraced her and spun, falling into the bed, entangled with her soft and sensually feminine body. Though in many ways Khiana's opposite, there was a thrill in her new form.</p><p>"What do you know of this? How could you know the nature of such a beast as me?" Her radiance dimmed, and a darkness swelled around them. Her beauty strained into the desperation of someone lost in the loathsome disdain of her origin. Aegon loved her face in that moment, her true face. She was indeed beautiful, but broken, and the tortures of her upbringing fooled her into believing she wasn't. So, she hid her expressions as Keeno, until the emotions love and anger broke through, and he could finally see her.</p><p>"Within you, we are one." He said, cupping her cheek in his hand.</p><p>"You only see what I wish you to see. You presume too much of yourself. At least here, anyway," she said, shrugging slightly, but not away from him or out of his embrace.</p><p>"I can feel you, Keeno. I know your manipulations. Return me to my body. At least there you can compel me whilst still keeping me in the dark."</p><p>"Strong of body and mind you may be, but you know not of what you speak. You say we two are one? Do they not teach you to count numerals where you're from?"</p><p>"What do you mean?"</p><p>"We are not alone here."</p><p>Aegon's consciousness wavered within itself, and though he wasn't a physical form, he felt ill, as if he'd been struck with a sickness at sea. The fear from those faded moments before the white void, flashed back into his vision. The frightening twisted face in the sky flashed through his manifestation of the Empress' cart, cracking his rudimentary application of control in the setting of her mind. He knew who it was and what Keeno meant.</p><p>"What of Gia Noon then? How can she control you?"</p><p>"The person called Gia Noon passed on years ago. Her soul resides in me. We are not alone, Aegon. It is only through my will and power that you've only encountered her the once."</p><p>"How could she still control you then?"</p><p>"That became my purpose once the healer freed my mother from Vikarro. I was to fulfill her destiny."</p><p>"And what is that? Why is that?"</p><p>Her beautiful anger slipped into sudden surprise and disbelief. What he perceived vaulted backwards, away from Khiana until she was but a spec in the distant black. Streaming white light seemed to fly passed him, and the orange and yellow glow of flames framed his vision. Like he was plucked from Gia Noon's memories, he was again pulled from his suspension, and brought back to what seemed like his own vision. His own body.</p><p>Before him, a beautiful young Yit woman, wearing a red ruby necklace and black hooded robe, held a torch over his head. The fabric of his tunic was still burning, a soft flame floating above his torso and shoulders. The sudden tingling rush of that cool burn he felt when fire licked at his skin snapped his mind back from the disorientation of feeling himself again suddenly. He looked down to see himself, not outside of the Empress' cart guarding it silently, but shackled in a tent with Kaono Soon and many of the men of the Red Robes. His weapons had been seized and his boots taken. <em>What?</em></p><p>"Hurry, you fool, we only have moments!" the young beauty barked at him in Valyrian.</p><p>He flexed his arms and freed his hands from the ropes that bound him. He turned to free Kaono, who mumbled, "Leave me, young man. It is my time to face my fate," hunched over against the dirt floor defeated.</p><p>"Not yet it isn't," Aegon said, still not fully understanding why he was shackled in the first place. <em>Didn't I witness her refusing to allow ReGar and his men to seize me? Wasn't I just standing guard outside of her cart?</em></p><p>The dirt under his bare feet felt different. It was softer, muddier earth than the ground that bordered the Azure Road. <em>We're returning to Leng Ma?</em></p><p>He tore the ropes that bound Kaono and lifted the old man with one arm, keeping him away from the flames. "Put me down this instant! I can walk, dammit."</p><p>"Shut your mouths, you dolts. It's bad enough he's a walking lantern. Let's fucking go, now," the beautiful young Yit said in a harsh whisper. <em>Who is this woman?</em></p><p>"What about them?" Aegon asked, looking at the rest of the captive men under the tent.</p><p>"No time," she replied quickly and coldly.</p><p>"I'll make time." Aegon began freeing all the men. Men who once planned to kill him, now whispered cheers of elation as he freed them one by one. Kaono and the young woman irritatingly paced in place as he tore the ropes from seven.</p><p>Outside the tent, voices conversed, beginning to notice the commotion. The young woman looked at Aegon with the fierce glare of an authority figure, an elder, scolding him with her hazel eyes. A strange familiarity washed over him, even though he was all but certain he'd never seen the young woman before.</p><p>"The guards outside are waking. I warned you we only had moments."</p><p>
  <em>Good. Let them come. Let them all come. After whatever the fuck that was, I could use a good fight.</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Chapter 24</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>24</p><p>The prisoners' tent was little more than wooden staffs covered with cloth, tied together to contain as many men they had seized in response to ReGar's claims of treason.</p><p>In truth, the Sheehin had the right of it. Most of the men bound were Red Robes, and if Kaono allowed them to join the party, by association, he was complicit.</p><p>Treasonous of all, however, was Aegon himself. Entrusted with the false Empress' safety, while on a mission to root out threats from the Red Robes themselves, he broke bread and spent the night in their camp. Furthermore, he sent them to join Kaono's progress, inevitably giving them an opportunity to attempt retaliation for the murders of their loved ones.</p><p>The decision had haunted him because he sympathized with both sides. But what he was conflicted with most was if <em>either </em>side was right. Were the Red Robes justified? They had attacked first, but fought an imposter and for their right to live freely. Or should he have loyally sided with the Empress, who he was sworn to protect, however unofficially? <em>She did mean to kill me with Akino, but yet, so did the Red Robes.</em></p><p>His tunic in tatters and still smoldering, Aegon heard the alerted men of the Azure Guard of Leng Ma and welcomed their intervention. Unarmed and barefoot, he could benefit from a smaller skirmish before attacking the whole of whatever host camped along with them on the Emerald Road back to Leng Ma. Two would be fine, but more would be ideal, allowing for himself and some of the newly freed men with him to be armed against however many potentially awaited them outside of the prisoners' tent still asleep.</p><p>"Everyone, sit down where you were. Act like nothing is amiss," Aegon ordered with a stern whisper. They all obeyed instantly, save Kaono who depressingly grumbled before plopping down a moment before the three guards on duty entered. Aegon hid in a corner near the entrance flap. The beautiful young woman crouched behind a group of men bound in the back, small enough as to not be seen.</p><p>The three Yit men crept in, each with a torch in hand. The guard in front was older and sloppy. His mismatched leather armor barely covered his wrinkled tunic and its mud-stained sleeves. His face sported a patchy beard, with deep set dark eyes, and a balding head. His breath escaped his mouth vigorously each time, as if the mere act of creeping quietly was almost too taxing. Tiptoeing cautiously into the tent, he looked suspicious of the commotion he'd heard.</p><p>The other two younger guards walked in much less alert. One had long, thin, straight hair he wore down so that it covered most of his face. Aegon wondered how he could see. The other wore his hair closely cropped to his scalp, with a thin Yit mustachio and chin beard that framed his bony face. The lead man's eyes were wide and inquisitive. The younger two looked as if they did not believe the claims of "something" that prompted the elder to investigate.</p><p>Aegon crouched behind the folded flap of the entrance, still slightly glowing, but not bright enough to draw the guards' attention as they entered. The three men took four or five steps into the tent before Aegon grasped the third in line from behind with a choke hold. He gurgled at first, but succumbed to the hold and passed out.</p><p>As Aegon let him down gently, the second younger man, with the long hair in his face, turned to see his subdued cohort and Aegon's fist, which connected with his nose before he was able to blurt out to the elder guard. The muffled crack of his nose alerted the first guard, but as he drew his sword, four Red Robes stood up, only feigning being shackled, and tackled the man to the floor.</p><p>They proceeded to beat him, all four men pounding into his face and chest, until Aegon ordered them to, "Stop," with another stern whisper. They did, all following the orders of their liberator, leaving the patchy bearded faced man in anguish and terror.</p><p>"Stay quiet, man. No one needs to die tonight," Aegon said, his tunic still smoldering, and standing above the fallen guard.</p><p>The man had lost grip of his sword, but it had fallen within reach of his right hand. Aegon studied his face as the man decided what to do. <em>He's weighing his honor and his life right about now.</em></p><p>He chose poorly, reaching for the sword below his hand and opening his mouth to scream. With one of the younger guard's blades, Aegon slashed across the man's face, separating his jaw on one side, and leaving a long gaping cut from one side to the other.</p><p>The man fell, unlikely to be dead immediately, but clearly in a state from the pain and deformation. He wasn't bleeding like he would eventually die, but collapsing back down to the soft dirt ground beneath, Aegon knew he wouldn't be sounding off any more alarms, at least until they were finished and far from this place.</p><p>Aegon gathered the remaining men, and organized them to free the rest. Kaono and the young woman stood by sullenly and watched, neither excited nor engaged with the prospects that laid before them. The elder guard stayed silent enough, moaning quietly to himself as they bound him to the same stake the Red Robes were just freed from. Aegon then slapped one of the younger guards, the one with the thin mustachio and beard, to wake him and ascertain more information.</p><p>The young man's mouth was gagged, keeping him from screaming his loudest as he came to. Aegon crouched over him with the stolen sword, slowly spinning its hilt with one hand as he spoke, "When I release the rope gagging you, if you scream, like he did, I will split your jaw in the same way. As I cautioned him, no one need die tonight. Tell us what we want to know and stay quiet, and you will live without any reminder of this evening's events. Try to be a hero," Aegon paused then pointed to the elder moaning on the floor. The young guard nodded emphatically in agreement, a small tear forming in the corner of his left eye.</p><p>They removed the rope and the man stayed silent. "Good," Aegon congratulated. "Now, where are my things? My weapons specifically."</p><p>"They are in the Honor's tent," he whispered softly. It was almost too soft to hear. <em>Cowardly he may be, but he'll live.</em></p><p>"Very well. Is there any chance you could retrieve it for me? It would potentially save a lot of your brethren's lives."</p><p>"Your Honor, I couldn't. When you leave, they'll know what I did. I'll be ruined. Killed even," the man pleaded, the tear still welling and growing in his eye. Not too long ago, Aegon himself would have been the commanding member of this guard. He sympathized with the individuals he'd have to face, and struggled to find the strength to continue to oppose them.</p><p>"What is your name, man?" Aegon asked.</p><p>"Trucifer, your Honor. My name is Trucifer."</p><p>"Trucifer. Pray to whatever Gods you keep and ask them to spare the lives of your friends out there. I will not force you to help me, but know that requires me to help myself. I may not be able to show them the same kindness as you have received."</p><p>He followed his orders, closing his eyes immediately and mumbling to himself. Harwin Snow might have slit the man's throat for refusing to help. Stuck in a state of honor and confusion, Aegon Velaryon didn't know what to do. So, he viewed the man as himself, and wondered what he would want in the other man's shoes. He respected his will to live by telling him the information he needed to know, and the fortitude to not cower to every demand of him.</p><p><em>Mercy </em>he thought. <em>Gods, I pray I don't regret this.</em></p><p>Aegon returned the rope to the man's mouth with a half-hearted, "Sorry," and ordered the freed men of the Red Robes to gather around him with another stern whisper. "Men," he began, "we are no longer bound, but we are not yet free. Firstly, where are the rest of you? Where's the boy Binny?"</p><p>"Many of us didn't even come, ser," a man answered in the back of the group. He was older than Aegon, yet he spoke with deference. "Only we came, knowing the risk."</p><p>"That's very well, however, does the Gray man or the Empress know of their whereabouts?" <em>Good thing I didn't or Keeno would already know.</em></p><p>"No, ser," another man responded. "None of us do. Only Jhat."</p><p><em>That's right </em>Aegon thought. <em>I haven't seen the theatrical priest. </em>"Where is he?" Aegon asked.</p><p>"Out there," the first man said, pointing toward the tent opening. "He's been out there all night since we camped."</p><p>"Let's get him back, then."</p><p>In the center of the camp, only one man sat on a log by a dwindling fire. He was huddled into himself, holding his hands near the failing embers, despite the night air lacking the bite of any cold. Across from him, Jhat, the Red Priest, was strung up, tied to a stake as thick as a man, his skin mostly blisters so close to the flames.</p><p>Both men looked tired. The guard, from a long night's watch with little or nothing to speak of, and the priest, who looked to have been tortured ironically with fire.</p><p>Aegon had changed into the uniform of one of the younger guards. The elder guard's clothes were already too filth ridden to wear, but were now even worse with the amount of blood that had poured from his gaping jaw. He carried a lit torch high above his head, as if to cast a shadow on his hooded face, keeping his identity as secret as he could, while the remaining men of the Red Robes, Kaono, and the young woman escaped into the safety of the dark wood. Eventually, he knew he'd be seen and incite an armed response, but hiding his face would give the rest of the captives the necessary time to flee in case he fell in his insanely risky attempt.</p><p>As his steps drew nearer the fire, the young guard's boots just a bit too tight for his feet, the solo guard called to him in a soft voice. "Anything to report? I've had nothing but a few monkeys and a rotten branch cracking."</p><p>Aegon hesitated to respond. "I'm just a bit tired me self," he said, trying to match the colloquial Malhada he'd heard common guards speak. "Say, in this darkness, fuck me if I could find our esteemed leader's tent. Could you be a lad and point me in the right direction? I have a matter that needs his attention."</p><p>"What matter, man? Is there something wrong with the prisoners?" he asked. <em>Just let me pass. If he becomes too interested, I'll have to subdue him, or worse. Just let me pass.</em></p><p>"Nothing to concern yourself about. It's my lot for the night, let me handle it. Just keep watching that ol' priest there. No need to bother you more than where the tent is."</p><p>"You sound weird," he said, rising from his log for what seemed like the first time since dusk. He was slow to get up, even stretching his lower back once he was standing. A stout, rounded young man, the guard was hard to distinguish other than his circular silhouette as he stepped in front of the dying flames. "Is that you, Horass? Or is that Malakee?"</p><p>"Neither, but like I said, man. No need to worry yourself. Just show me the tent in this darkness and I'm gone."</p><p>"Your voice is definitely not Aggarree's. Halt, who are you?"</p><p>Aegon stopped, his back facing the guard, as he heard the heavy steps approaching. <em>I wish it didn't have to come to this.</em></p><p>"Look at me, man. Who are you?" the guard ordered as he reached his hand out to grab Aegon's shoulder.</p><p>Aegon turned, whipping his short cloak around. He shrugged the man's hand off of his shoulder and lowered his hood, exposing his face. The guard began to blurt out, "You're the Dragon-M…"</p><p>"The Dragon I am!" Aegon responded with a harsh growl. The orange glow of the waning flames highlighted the features in the dark. "And I gave you a chance to avoid this." Aegon shot his open right hand to the guard's neck with a ferocious jolt. The blow launched the guard back, and to the floor, clutching throat.</p><p>He began wheezing, struggling for breath, grasping his neck as if to help open it for more air. He looked up at Aegon with intense fear and childlike helplessness. <em>What do I do with this unlucky soul? One outburst and he threatens the lives of the ones I've saved. Yet, he is nothing more than an innocent man doing his duty for his lord. What can I do without losing my honor?</em></p><p>The moment lingered forever. Wide eyed, shaking, and clutching his neck, the round young man could only speak with his eyes, as his gasps for air prevented any pleas of mercy. Aegon's instincts and honor battled in his head over what to do. <em>Let him live, risking my life and the others'? Or quiet him forever and kill a man for being in the wrong camp at the wrong time? </em>Finally, after the longest of moments, he struck the man in the side of his head with the butt of his sword. The blow was enhanced by his power, but Aegon was confident it wouldn't kill the man. <em>I hope he stays out long enough for me to leave </em>Aegon thought. <em>Fuck, he never told me where the Sheepshin's tent is.</em></p><p>Aegon rushed to Jhat. His skin was bubbling and raw. The stake which he was tied to was no more than a step away from the firepit. Aegon would enjoy the heat, but a mere mortal might perish. Though his body warranted it, the Priest's face showed little anguish. As Aegon removed the ropes from his wrists and legs, his skin peeled away like the rinds of an orange, almost as if it was never attached at all. The Priest barely reacted. Aegon nearly wretched.</p><p>"Aegon," the Priest said groggily, but with a wide smile. There was something both sincere and sinister in his genuine grin. "So good to see you out of that trance."</p><p>"Can you walk?" Aegon asked.</p><p>"I'll manage. Though my body seems a ruin, the flames have cleansed me. Many cleansings are painful, even agonizing at times. Change and purity are horrid in the eyes of most. This is but an arduous salvation from the Lord of Light and his worldly agent."</p><p>"That's nice, old man, but first, you'll have to catch up with your men."</p><p>"The speed in which I walk, however, may keep me from doing that. Let me just rest here as you work though whatever it is you need to work through."</p><p>
  <em>Work through? What does he mean?</em>
</p><p>The Red Priest, now much redder, lowered himself and curled into a comfortable repose nearer to the flames. Aegon would have thought he'd had enough, but he might have caught a chill from the condition of his singed skin. He was more chipper than Aegon expected him to be, which was both heartening and disturbing.</p><p>"Are you going to kill them all?" the priest asked without a hitch in his tone.</p><p>Killing slavers on Sothoryos was something Aegon was able to do without hesitation. Killing the occupying Brindled Men, who were rapers and slavers themselves was morally easy as well, though much more physically difficult. Killing these men, however, men he might have traveled with if he were still in Kaono's service, seemed wrong. He hoped beyond hope he wouldn't have to<em>. Enough have died over this madness.</em></p><p>"They'll kill you if you stay, Jhat, just make your way to the woods that way," Aegon said, pointing towards the edge of the camp. "Someone will be waiting for you."</p><p>"I will make the attempt. It's not easy to deny the will of the Lord's messanger," he agreed, nodding, and slowly getting back off the ground. Aegon removed the unconscious guard's cloak and covered Jhat's exposed skin. He winced and Aegon tried to apologize for his attempt at kindness. "Don't feel sorry, son. You've done nothing but help. Will do nothing but help."</p><p>As the burnt man hobbled away, Aegon began searching for ReGar. Most camps set their leader's tent up towards the center, providing a level of security against outsiders and ease of access to those within. Aegon also imagined ReGar's tent to be opulent and easy to spot, yet he was only promoted to the leader of the train after Kaono was charged, so it was possible his tent was mundane and ordinary. <em>Not likely though</em>.</p><p>He combed the camp, carefully and as quietly as possible, and since the fire in the center of the camp all but died, he could only see by the light of his torch a few feet in front of him.</p><p>He held it up to each of the tents as he looked, trying to discern markings or designs that would identify a tent as ReGar's, but after searching each and every one he could find, none looked to be any larger or marked differently than the next. <em>Is he even here?</em></p><p>Peering in the dim light at the final tent all the way at the outskirts of the camp, he heard commotion towards the camp's center. <em>The guard I spared. He's come to.</em></p><p>Aegon heard the man he'd struck yelling that the prisoners had been freed. <em>Mayhaps I should have killed him after all. </em>With each loud outburst, more and more bustling was audible, as the entire camp seemed to rise, one tent at a time, beginning to gather in the center where the fire had once roared, and a Red Priest was once bound and burned.</p><p>Two figures left the tent he was investigating, grumbling and rubbing their eyes as they walked. Aegon thought to join in with them, dressed in their uniform, but hesitated. <em>The first guard knew every member by name and voice. Surely these men would recognize that I was not one of them. I'll stay back and listen. Maybe then I'll figure out where the dirk is.</em></p><p>Reasonably, Aegon should have left with the rest of the Red Robes and Kaono. But ReGar had the dirk, and for what it was worth, he'd rather die trying to get it back than leave it in the hands of such a weasel. He knew how stupid and irrational it was to die over something as trivial as a sarcastically inherited family heirloom, but the dirk was all he had left of who he was. He wasn't willing to give that up, not after all it had gotten him through.</p><p>Aegon crept nearer the camp's center as the Azure Guard of Leng Ma assembled and lined up in formation. He scanned those present for ReGar. He wasn't among them. <em>Where is that snake?</em></p><p>"Looking for me?"</p><p>Aegon turned to see ReGar, dressed in a blue silk robe that flowed loosely over leather armor and his sword belt. The gray man with gray eyes seemed to delight in Aegon's surprise, as he nearly jumped out of his skin, struggling to arm himself with the stolen sword.</p><p>"I believe you've been looking for this," he said, offering the dirk. "I've heard you're somewhat attached to the damn thing."</p><p>Aegon snatched the sheathed weapon quickly out of the open palm of ReGar. "You'll need these too, I presume," he continued, offering up the sword belt with the sheathed dragon blades clasped at the hips. Aegon more coolly grabbed for those, wrapping the belt around his waist and securing the dirk's sheath to it.</p><p>"Why so accommodating, your Honor?" Aegon asked, as he took a few steps back and held the torch close enough to his face as to feel the power from the flames.</p><p>"What better way to earn the respect of the Azure Guard then to witness me defeat the famed "Dragon-Man"? Chop, chop," he said, ushering Aegon out of the shadows and into the camp's center. "We have a show to put on."</p><p>
  <em>How'd he know I was here? Why is he so confident he'll beat me? If it's a fight he wants, a fight I will give him, and gladly.</em>
</p><p>Behind them, Aegon could hear the Guard beginning to split up into teams to search the forest. It hadn't yet been long enough for Jhat to get far enough away in his condition. Not to mention the Red Robes and Kaono as well, who would have only gotten so far themselves, unarmed and without shelter to protect them. Within ear shot of the guard, Aegon thought to halt their search with ReGar's suggested entertainment.</p><p>"Azure Guard of Leng Ma! It is your former Commander, Aegon Velaryon," he decreed as if he were an Imperial Caller. "Though I have been charged with Treason by the lowly Reamon Gardulos, I and Kaono are innocent. The humble refugees that I've freed are likewise innocent. I have come here to prove to you, before the Gods you keep, of that innocence. And as is customary in my homeland, I propose a trial by combat, and we will let the Gods judge the right in these false claims."</p><p>The whole of the guard stopped and silently waited for ReGar's response. There was no further mention of a search, and most seemed as if they were to making themselves comfortable for the performance. <em>Who doesn't enjoy a little bloodshed?</em></p><p>"Though I will rise to your challenge, traitor, remember my Guard," he said, reaching inside his robe pocket, "Here I have the scribbles from this man, this foreigner, which proves beyond a doubt of his guilt. After he falls, know that I offered him a route in his guilt without death," ReGar said, holding the false cloth up as evidence. Despite Aegon being guilty, the note on the cloth was never written by Aegon to anyone. As embarrassed as he was to admit, the only language Aegon could read or write, and barely at that, was the common tongue of Westeros.</p><p>"Many of you can't read. Even fewer can read Valaryian. Do not let this false evidence fool you. I never wrote anything to the Magistrate, and these men are just displaced refugees. Do you believe the lies of such a snake as this? A man who continues to come into power coincidentally around the misfortune of others?"</p><p>The crowd of guards began to stir in an uproar. At first, Aegon couldn't make out what they began to chant. Then he heard it clearly, "Combat, Combat, Combat."</p><p>"Prove us your innocence, Dragon Man! Kill him and you'll be free!"</p><p>"You hear that," Aegon said to ReGar as he pulled his dragon blades from their sheaths. "They cheer for me."</p><p>"Aye. Why do you think I planned this battle for them to see? Many still see you a God. Soon, after you've fallen, they will see me the same," he said, pulling his thin blade and holding it parallel to the ground across his face. "When you are ready, ser."</p><p>"I'm no knight, friend." Aegon quipped.</p><p>"I'm no friend, you fucking Bastard,"ReGar retorted raising his blade and stepping to Aegon.</p><p>As the Sheehin swung through with his first prodding forehand, the thin sword pinged in a high-pitched ring as it cut through the air. <em>Fine steel </em>he thought, as he parried it away with his left blade, then launching a forehand slash with his right. The thin sword bounced unnaturally off of his left blade and quickly enough to catch the attack. Metal rang, and the crowd started to cheer.</p><p>ReGar's stance and speed immediately impressed and pressured Aegon, forcing him to retreat after parrying the first four swipes from the Sheehin's thin blade. His gray face was relaxed, toting a slight grin, his blade moving and swinging with intense speed and brutal force. ReGar almost instantly proved to be one of the best he'd ever crossed swords with, especially for a man so slight.</p><p>Aegon continued to lose ground, parrying left and right, as the thin sword dazzled back and forth in front of him. If Aegon didn't have the two blades, he might have already fallen. <em>Good gods he's fast. A wonder he was so confident.</em></p><p>ReGar opened up for a double handed forehand slash to Aegon's chest, leaving him exposed for an instant. As Aegon ducked under the attack and spun away to the left, he swung his right sword in a backhand slash that should have split the Sheehin in two.</p><p>ReGar was fast. Maybe faster than any Aegon had ever fought, but when his right blade followed through, slicing harmlessly through his flowing robe, then air, as the blade circled all the way around, Aegon's eyes widened in disbelief.</p><p>
  <em>How could he have dodged that?</em>
</p><p>ReGar retreated back instantly, almost as if he flashed away unnaturally out of harm's way. The thin gray man's body should be in two pieces and spouting blood from a severed midsection. Instead, miraculously, his thin blade was once again whirring though the air toward Aegon's now exposed neck.</p><p>Aegon leaned away, so quickly that he fell flat on his back to the soft muddy ground, but not before the thin blade nicked his jaw. The Sheepshin's blade found its mark, if only gradually, and followed with another downward slash as Aegon tried to recover on the ground.</p><p>The blade rang as it came down, faster than any strike before, but Aegon was able to block it with both blades, screeching the thin blade to a sharp halt as the metal clanged inches away from his face.</p><p>The fire magic within him, he pushed the swords away with everything, causing ReGar to stumble back, allowing Aegon to roll away and back to his feet. He stood, readied in his best stance, for the first time, fully respecting the ability of his foe.</p><p>"You're good, Aegon. Very good, in fact. But you're just not fast enough," ReGar slyly snickered, holding his thin blade before his face as if he meant to inspect it. "Pity Keeno couldn't convince you to join us. You would be a most worthy ally in the wars to come."</p><p>"Wars?" Aegon asked. "Where else do you intend on fighting?"</p><p>"Try winning this one fight before you worry past the next quarter hour," he said, taking a step and launching himself into another offensive.</p><p>Right, left, left, right, forward stab, forehand, forehand, backhand. ReGar's strikes came at Aegon like a barrage of arrows, slicing through the air and into one of Aegon's blades or the other, the gray man's pace exhaustingly fast and constant. The rhythmic singing of steel sounded like a mummer's song, as the repetitive slashes were all parried, but barely. With each new offensive ReGar opened up, Aegon felt himself continually retreating further and further back.</p><p>The crowd around them followed, opening up space for the two to fight, but as Aegon kept backing up, they began fighting into the edge of the camp.</p><p>Reengaged, ReGar spun and slashed across with a strong and lightning quick double handed forehand. Aegon was in no stance to duck and spin away, so he blocked it with both swords. With the blow stymied, Aegon reached out to kick the Sheepshin, the Gray man's body less than arm's reach away.</p><p>The tight boot missed, as the flowing Blue Robe of ReGar swayed and Aegon's foot pushed harmlessly through it, and ReGar's body instantly appeared far enough away as to remain unscathed. <em>What the. . .</em></p><p>Aegon didn't miss because he was off target. He missed because his target vanished and reappeared. The flowing blue robe was all that was left in that instant, until his foe reappeared far enough away. Aegon had never seen anything like it before. He had never fought anyone like this. <em>Is this what it means to be Sheehin?</em></p><p>ReGar came back at him, as Aegon's face widened with disbelief. Even the raucous crowd watching the battle seemed to quiet down in surprise or denial. <em>Did he really just move that fast?</em></p><p>The attack continued. The thin blade moved back and forth so quickly, it was a gleaming silver blur, almost invisible in the dark. Each new swing seemed faster, and after another combination of forehand and backhand slashes, Aegon caught the blade with a block with his left sword, in front, but just above his shoulder.</p><p>ReGar pushed his blade down and slid it toward Aegon, slicing into the skin of his shoulder. He winced in slight pain as ReGar pulled the sword back and swung it, cutting an inch-deep slice across Aegon's chest.</p><p>Aegon backed away enough to avoid being cut in two, but not enough to avoid the sharp sting of the thin blade. A line of red formed and swelled underneath the cut cloak, and he could feel blood trickling in thick streams down his chest.</p><p>"You must know you're beaten by now, young Aegon," he said, wiping his blade with his robe. The blood absorbing away into the cloth, or so it looked in the dark. "There's no need to surrender. I'll eventually cut you down, but at least prepare yourself now for the inevitable. Soon, you will fall, and no one will be here to raise you back up."</p><p>"At least when you cut me down, I won't have to hear your constant blabbering," Aegon managed to respond, slightly out of breath and bleeding. The sting from the cut only somewhat bothered him, he was more confused at the overwhelming combat capability of such a slight and seemingly harmless foe.</p><p>Time suspended, if only for a moment, and within his head he could hear whispers. <em>Aegon </em>a smooth and familiar voice called out. <em>Aegon, hear me.</em></p><p>
  <em>What? Who?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>It is Keeno. His ability comes from sorcery. The Sheehin are invulnerable to attack. Any strike against him will be useless. He is able to appear and disappear, but only on the defensive. His attacks are not enhanced by his sorcery, only his defenses. You will not catch him with your blade while attacking.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>What? How can I hear you? Why is time stopped?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>My soul. A part of me is a part of you now. I will contact you in the future. Win, Aegon. Live. I love you.</em>
</p><p><em>What?</em> <em>What in the fuck?</em></p><p>Time continued, and Aegon turned back towards the center of the camp. <em>Fire </em>he thought. <em>It can all be solved with the flames.</em></p><p>But as he retreated, losing strength in his parries as he backed away, the Sheehin seemed to be getting stronger. His grin widened, and each swing grew more and more wild.</p><p>In the side of his vision, Aegon saw a torch. He jumped and rolled through guards that were spectating, and popped up within the crowd at the base of the torch. He sheathed his left blade, and held the flame to his skin. The cloak ignited, and around him, like steam from a bathhouse, the cooling tingle of the flames hovered around him, rekindling his strength, and restoring his injuries.</p><p>The guards around him darted away, frightened and startled, but mostly to allow the action to continue, as ReGar approached with unwavering confidence. "Your power does not threaten me, boy. Go ahead, take a swing."</p><p>Aegon charged, threw the torch, and recoiled both arms to swing the right blade across his body with all his might.</p><p>ReGar bent his body out of the way of the torch, which flew by him harmlessly, and stood motionless as Aegon approached for his attack. The Gray man held his sword by his side, point down, next to his leg. Enraged and pumped up, Aegon swung through anyway, despite his foe's helpless stance, with full strength, twisting violently and exhaling in a roar.</p><p>The sword's edge swished through an empty floating blue cloak and he reappeared behind the off balance Aegon. The Sheehin swung his sword down and through the bottom of his calf, taunting him as the blade slid through. "Too slow."</p><p>His cloak still ablaze, sparkling orange embers flaking off it with every movement, Aegon's cut healed, but not before the searing pain of the slice. Aegon roared again, this time in pain, as the crowd seemed all too quiet, this time unable to deny the unnatural sight before them.</p><p>
  <em>What is this power? How am I going to win?</em>
</p><p>"Hopeless," he said, circling Aegon, his sword still down at his side, "I know. A pity, like I said earlier, but hopeless all the same. Many tragedies are best told with hopelessness at their core. For if the hero was always doomed from the start, its better than if they had a chance and failed."</p><p>Aegon turned and readied his stance, thinking as the Sheehin gave him time with an extended speech. "And you will fail, Aegon Velaryon. Just like your father, and his father, and all that came before."</p><p>"You talk as if your life will ever matter," Aegon said, thinking of a stupid plan. He tried thinking of a smart one, but couldn't. So, he decided to settle with the stupid one. "You think you own land and a harbor. You think you're rising in your station. You think you're somehow involved with this plot to overthrow the Empress of Leng," Aegon said, pausing to spit out blood. <em>Magic has its limits. </em>"In truth, you'll always be lesser. Lower. You have no royal or noble blood. You have no name. You have no power, in truth. Only your sneaky climb, rung by rung, in the shadows of the ones you covet. You're nothing, Sheepshin, even if you do kill me. You'll always be nothing, won't you?" Aegon didn't believe in the sentiment he was preaching, but from what he knew of ReGar, he knew it would enrage the slithering serpent.</p><p>The grin across the Gray man's face quickly soured to a scowl. His gray eyes burned with fury, and he raised his blade for another attack. Aegon noticed a pattern he thought the Sheehin might come at him again with. He hoped he would, anyway. <em>She did say only his defenses are unnatural. Hopefully his attacks are not enhanced.</em></p><p>He started with the same combination; right, left, left, right. Then, he came with a blow Aegon hoped would be glancing at most, because his plan counted on it.</p><p>ReGar then thrusted straight with a forward stab. Aegon dropped his weapon and leapt into the blade. The thin silver sword punctured hard into the left side of his midsection, through, and out his back in a sharp and painful skewering, as he lunged at ReGar's body, wrapping his right arm tightly around the Sheehin's narrow chest, <em>under</em> the flowing blue robe. Aegon coughed and spit blood into ReGar's frantic face as they locked eyes. The flaming hood around Aegon's shoulders filled his gray pupils orange, and with his left arm, Aegon pulled out the dirk, thrusted up, and crushed through the gray man's throat through the base of his skull. "Dodge that, you fucking snake." Aegon coughed more blood, and the two bodies fell to the floor.</p><p>Aegon landed luckily on his right side, so the sword didn't shift much, but he was still impaled. Despite the flames around him, he still felt weak. His hood had nearly burnt out, and the wound, though not immediately fatal, would spout enough blood to eventually take him.</p><p>"He spared me," a voice from the crowd said. "When he could have easily killed me, he spared me." Aegon looked up. It was the round boy he'd beaten at the fire pit in the center of the camp.</p><p>"He spared me as well," another voice said. "He fucked up Aggarree's face up, but fuck Aggarree!" The crowd laughed. Aegon began to feel his head lighten, and his vision beginning to blur. "Fuck, let's help the fucker," a man said. Aegon was too weak to discern who.</p><p>"Out of the way," a young woman's voice yelled. "Get that torch over there. Didn't you see his burning cloak. It's fire, idiots. Fire that'll fix him. Pull that blade out and burn that fucker. He'll be just fine."</p><p>There was something familiar about the way the beautiful young Yit, the one from before in the tent, spoke. Aegon felt weak as a nearby guard pulled the blade from his midsection. <em>It didn't feel that long going in </em>he thought, as the thin silver sword slid slowly out of him. He almost lost consciousness, but fought through the pain with a scream.</p><p>"Fire," he whispered, and a soft hand touched his face as the cool tingle of the flames shot a burst of life back into him. He saw the young Yit woman's expression, frightened to death by his near death. "I told your stupid ass to fucking come with us as soon as you were freed. Good thing I decided to stay back and see if you'd need me." Her concern and anger were both genuine. <em>Who is this </em>he thought, as his eyes traveled down from her lovely face to her neck.</p><p>A red amulet was tied around it, and he knew.</p><p>
  <em>You sexy vulgar bitch.</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Chapter 25</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>25</p><p> </p><p>His steps echoed throughout the long blank corridor as he walked through it, unaware.</p><p> </p><p>He was unaware of what surrounded him.  A speckled white surface, too rough for ice, too soft for block, too solid for dirt, and too smooth for stone, stretched as far as he could see.  Doorways were arranged on each side with warm yellow inviting light pouring out of rooms into the corridor, like the overflow of water from a basin, staining the white outside of each opening with the color of the sun.</p><p> </p><p>He was unaware of what he was doing.  His body kept moving, though his mind couldn't remember where he was going or why, stepping boldly through the blank hall without emotion or known purpose.  All other noise was inaudible, as the gentle knock of each step reverberated off the white walls and repeated in his ears again and again endlessly.</p><p> </p><p>He was unaware of why, but he was drawn to the light.  Though, as he reached each doorway, it would close, the light would diminish, and the doorway itself would become part of the white void of the wall.  This happened four or five times until it became worrisome.  The hall seemed infinite, and every way out vanished before he reached it.  He continued moving forward, onward, but it was not long until Aegon could feel his breath quicken and his chest beat faster.  </p><p> </p><p>He was unaware enough not to start panicking, but wherever he was and whatever was going on, he was beginning to become aware enough to be concerned.  With what exactly, he still couldn't figure out.</p><p> </p><p>Then he lost his thoughts again.  Unaware.</p><p> </p><p>Time, and its rules, seemed different.  He both raced as fast as he could through the corridor, trying to reach an exit, and seemed too slow to move when he’d reach it.  He could feel his limbs struggling through the air as if it was too thick.  His arms and legs suddenly became too weak to function quickly, but only as he reached for the door.  Only in the moments he needed to be faster to get through.</p><p> </p><p>He was unaware that he was suspended in a dream, recovering and still weak from his fight with the Sheehin.  His form, as he saw it, was nothing more than the representation of his consciousness within the shared space inside his head.  Space shared with Keeno.</p><p> </p><p>He called out.  His voice, muffled and hard to hear even with his own ears, was even harder to control than his limbs, as the words felt as if they'd slide back down his throat as he opened his mouth to say them.  It was like his words weren't his.  All of him wasn't his, and the place he felt around him was foreign, even though it was inside his own mind.</p><p> </p><p>"Hello?"</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Hello.  Hello.  Hello.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>His voice echoed in the muffled air until it sounded like he answered himself.</p><p>"Hello."</p><p> </p><p>"What is this?"</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>This. This. This.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>"Don't you know?" the void responded.  The voice sounded like his own.</p><p> </p><p>"Know what?"</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>What.  What.  What.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>"We are not alone."</p><p> </p><p>He froze.  "Whose we?"</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>We.  We.  We.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>"We," the voice seemed to answer, but it could have still been the echo.</p><p> </p><p>His body remained still as he heard the knock of footsteps clicking; footsteps other than his own.</p><p> </p><p>Before him, all the doors of the corridor closed, the light that flowed from the openings became darkness, and a thin beam of light from above lit up the hall.</p><p> </p><p>"Rest easy, Dragon King.  I mean you no harm or discomfort," she said, her smooth sultry voice a song and soothing from afar.  Aegon could imagine her long teak legs, her smooth golden skin, and her voluptuous curves well before he could see her.  Khiana walked toward him, at first invisible through the gleam from the light source, but then regally strode through it, pleasantly reserved, her face painted with the subtle smirk of an Empress, and her gait that of a conqueror.</p><p> </p><p>"Who, in truth, are you?"</p><p> </p><p>"It is your love, Aegon.  The one who’s inside your head and heart."</p><p> </p><p>"If that is you, Keeno, why not show me your true form?  The truth is much more beautiful than a lie."</p><p> </p><p>"Ah, yes, and my love is the most beautiful lie, is it not?" she said, smiling bright white from ear to ear.  “Isn’t that what your old friend once said?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes,” he said.  “And the truth is, I cannot trust myself with you,” he stammered, “w-when it comes to things dealing with you, that is.”</p><p> </p><p>“Is that why you ask for my true form?” she asked.  “Is this enchanting and seductive body too much for you to handle?”</p><p> </p><p>“If I am ever to believe this lie your love has been, mustn’t it start from the truth?  How can I believe anything you say when it’s from another’s lips?”</p><p> </p><p>“So, you’d have me in this form, then?” she asked as the amulet rose from her neck and she instantly shifted into the skin he grew to know as Keeno.  Approaching him still, she kept the same gait as her Khiana avatar.  Though the length and thickness of her legs reduced, the power and grace of each step remained.  A sheer silk robe gracefully flowed from her smaller frame, and though her features weren’t as full as when she was Khiana, they were no less feminine, and Aegon couldn’t help drinking in the sight of her bare form. </p><p> </p><p> Love rarely has much to do with features and curves.  Whatever feelings Aegon had for Keeno, in whatever form, were based on more than who she appeared to be.  Whether an insidious hold or actual emotional connection, he still wasn’t sure, but those feelings were more than just desire. </p><p>Lust, however, focuses <em>strictly</em> on features and curves, and despite the war in his heart over his love for her, the sight of her new form only excited his basest urges.  And in this primal white void, he didn’t feel the need to hide his hunger.</p><p>Orange light seemed to filter in around him in glowing bursts that struck with a pain in his gut.  Unaware, he tried to piece together the logic behind the sensation, only to succumb to the base urges of Keeno the moment the pain was instantly erased.  He deliberately tried to think rationally and critically, but something about the setting kept his mind in a constant disorientation, fading back into being unaware as soon as he began to realize what his surroundings most likely were: <em>A fever dream of my mind and weakened body, almost certainly controlled solely by Keeno. . .  or worse.</em></p><p><em>Keeno </em>he thought as his mind cleared and he began again, unaware.  <em>Your eyes.</em></p><p>Her YiTi eyes were almond shaped and coy.  Unlike Khiana’s eyes, or Nahknani’s, whose gazes were fierce and hungry, Keeno’s eyes evoked a more vulnerable playfulness.  They conjured a longing in him as she glanced from their corners, turning her head away as if to draw him in more.</p><p>“I can hear the difference in your thoughts of this body,” she said.  “This face,” she whispered, turning to look directly at him.  As she opened her mouth slightly as if to say something else, her thick bottom lip pouted out.  She bit it.   Gently.  Slowly.  Then, she looked slightly down and grinned.</p><p>She turned away from him quickly, twirling the sheer robe as she spun, and gayly scurried to a doorway that appeared as she turned toward it.</p><p>Aegon followed blindly.  In his mind at that moment, it was as if he had never seen a doorway before, either in this void, or at all.  He only saw the sauntering woman in front of him, and the sheer fabric of her robe gently floating off of her as she moved away.</p><p>Another flash of orange, yellow, and white and his eyes opened.  He saw another fair Yit face, though it was far from smiling.  The young woman wearing the red amulet was kneeling over him, forcing the tip of a lit torch nearly through his wound.  The flame tingled, but the pressure she pushed into the puncture with shot searing bolts of agony through him worse than when the sword itself ran him through.</p><p>Aegon screamed, his wounded body snapping up off the jungle floor as the woman pushed into his abdomen with the torch.  The rest of the men of the Azure Guard of Leng Ma huddled near enough to his body as she worked, concerned or curious of how their recent captive and one-time commander would fare.  Some rooted for each outcome: survival or death.  None felt the need to assist the young woman. </p><p>Just as suddenly, his eyes closed and he was stepping back into the white void, following the woman in his head into an open doorway.  His mind instantly eased.  His focus, once again, was only on his urges.</p><p>He reached for her.  His hand stretched for her smooth pale skin, only for his fingertips to glance softly off of the soft sheer fabric of her flowing robe.  His memory flashed to the scene of his sword whirring through the Sheehin’s blue cape. </p><p>Aegon fought her false reality.  Both his head and his wound throbbed in a searing flare, as he struggled to hold onto control of his thoughts and battled with her magical hold of him.</p><p>In the void, he screamed, this time from his gut with anger and not anguish.  He screamed to try and rage through her visions, her sorcery.  He knew what encompassed his awareness.  He was staring directly at her.  The white blank around them flashed in and out of the blacks and greens of the jungle camp.  Her face flashed in and out with the grim blood covered face of the Young Yit woman currently trying to heal him.</p><p>Keeno turned back to him.  The vision started to flash in and out of his eyes, in and out of his mind, with every beat of his heart.  Pain and peace vacillated like a coin flipping in the air, spinning until both sides seemed one new circular existence. </p><p>Two hands reached for him.  The Young woman (the Youth Glamored Kiku Ma wearing the Red Woman’s magical amulet around the now tight and smooth skin of her yellow neck) pushed into him with the flame for an instant.  Then, it was Keeno’s soft dainty fingertips gently caressing his naked abdomen as he laid back on a soft white down mattress.  Unaware.</p><p>She didn’t relent, coaxing his mind back down to its basest most shallow state. </p><p>She was naked.  The flowing robe was shed, once enticing, now only a reminder of reality, and Keeno crawled sensuously over him.  Her straight black hair was pulled into a knot on the top of her head, allowing Aegon to view every inch of her frame.  He gripped her hips as she climbed to straddle his chest.  She sat down on him, gyrating as she landed, grinding her sex and its hair inches from where his dropped jaw pressed into his collarbone.</p><p>Her tight rolling midsection begged to be squeezed, and his hands powerfully dug into the feather soft skin of her sides, as he flexed, grunted, and pulled her hips to his face.</p><p>Her hips opened, and her back reclined, as he yanked her into his mouth and drank in from her lust in a ravaging savagery.  Her moans quickened his pace, and he ate through her angrily as she rode the wave of his passion like the saddle of a steed.  His mouth and tongue clashed with her rolling pelvis as her arched back bent almost inhumanly into his lower half, and her dainty hands found his cock to play with.</p><p>She raised onto her knees, folding closed like a YiTish fan, stood up from her knees, and flipped so that she was facing him. . . and his member.  She quickly sank back down, covering his face with her lower lips, and laying on top of him to wrap her other lips around him.</p><p>Ecstasy kept him from thinking, and he enjoyed both the taste and the service of Keeno’s lips.  Both moaned as time and reality mattered little if at all, as both raced each other to climax.</p><p>His body, or his mind, surrounded by vague white, kept feeling closer and closer to bursting, yet, the feeling never ended.  Both his hunger and release built and built and built as her moans sounded over and over again.  Her body quivered and quivered, shuddering with him inside her, as she stopped, came, and began again. </p><p>She came and came and all he continued to do was climb.</p><p>Each of her orgasms allowed for her hold to slip, if only for the briefest of moments.  He noticed first when he felt a scar.  As she shuddered, he felt a thick raised scar on skin that was smooth the moment before.  That reminded him of her visions, and reality.  The next moment, she reclaimed her power, and resumed her stroke.  The awareness slipped. . . mostly.</p><p>Cycles of her orgasms allowed Aegon to almost plan his thoughts.  He continued streams of thought from one to the next, and in what seemed like only minutes, he began to form full thoughts in between the moments of bliss and ignorance while she shivered into his mouth, and lost control.</p><p>He pushed her off.  “Enough!”</p><p>The pain flared in his stomach.</p><p>Aegon fought to open his eyes to the jungle until Keeno responded, “How about this, then?  Can I keep your attention now?” </p><p>She shifted into Nani.  Her eyes stared back into him, naked and angered on the non-descript floor.  They were the true beautiful blue and pink of his love, but they weren’t hers, and Keeno’s attempt at pulling him back in with his lost love only strengthened his will to fight against her.</p><p>“Don’t fucking take her from me!  Get out of her NOW!” Aegon nearly struck Keeno as he threatened her, his face red and his neck throbbing. </p><p>“You request this form,” she said, shifting back into the skin he knew as Keeno, “but you don’t really know who this is, do you?”</p><p>“What do you mean, witch?  Who are you really if not the girl from your own memory?”</p><p>Aegon did see Keeno’s youth.  He saw key moments of her life when they shared a consciousness, moments she couldn’t hide from him.  Aegon witnessed them from above, clearly seeing the form she wore now.  But what Aegon didn’t see, didn’t know, was the truth of it.  Not entirely.</p><p>“I find it funny that the form that turns you on the most is the form of your greatest enemy,” she said with a grin.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“This is the form of Gia Noon.  It was my first form, but not my true form.  You see, Aegon, I cannot take my own ‘form’ in the sense that you speak, unless its that of another.  I am nothing if not another.  I am no one.  I am just the inside.  There was and never will be an outside of me.”</p><p>Aegon couldn’t think hard enough to comprehend anything she said.  None of it made any sense.  <em>I am just the inside?  What the fuck does that mean?  </em>He also struggled to remain in control, which only made thinking about the gravity of her words all the more impossible. </p><p>Struggling with her hold required him to withstand excruciating palpable pain in his head.  He fought all the same, roaring in agony.  As he began to overcome her strength, he started to feel the pain of his wound, and the puncture from the thin sword hurt as bad or worse than his head. </p><p>“All you have to do to ease this pain, my love, is come back into the bed with me,” she said, once again Khiana, naked and gesturing to him from her back with her legs open.  He closed his eyes and fought.</p><p>“Is this better?” she asked, her voice that of what he thought was Keeno Noon.  He refused to look.  The pain radiated and spread until every inch of him burned hotter than any fire ever could.  He squeezed his eyelids so tightly; he could hear the muscles of his face vibrating in his ears.  All he could do was think and scream.</p><p>To fight her, he thought of <em>her.  </em>Ever since he’d lost sight of Nahknani in his mind’s eye, he was lost to the power Keeno held over him.  So, he focused on Nahknani, cycling through the moments they shared.  From the rainstorm in the forest, until their last embrace.  He thought of every moment.  The good.  The wretched.  The sublime.  And the inevitable tragedy.  Then he started over.</p><p>Each time through was as heart wrenching as if it had just happened.  As time worked differently here, so did memory and experience.  It was as if each time through his recollections of their history, was like living it in real time all over again.  He knew the next moment each time through, which only made the agony worse during the worst of it, and the best of it all the worse knowing the agony that awaited them.</p><p>Despite the pain, he continued to fight Keeno’s hold, screaming in agony worse than anything he’d ever felt each time JaHahn had his way with her.  Nothing hurt him more in his entire life.  Nothing would hurt him more.  And he clung to that pain to escape Keeno.</p><p>“Well, if it won’t be love,” Aegon heard.  “It’ll be something else entirely.”  The voice that spoke was familiar, yet completely unbelievable, even in this place.  His will to fight against her only lost to his curiosity in what he’d see if he opened his eyes.  <em>Did I hear right?</em></p><p>Aegon stood, still naked, and breathed in deep.  The pain in his head softened, but only slightly, and the pain in his gut still only worsened.  The faint orange glow around them was now burnt and deep like a sunset.  He stared at where Keeno had been and he couldn’t believe his eyes.</p><p>“Farewell, Aegon Velaryon,” he said, the voice’s richness and tone all too familiar.</p><p>Across from Aegon in the now burnt orange void stood the mirror image of himself.  Keeno, now an Aegon Velaryon nodded back at him, smiled slyly, and released her hold.</p><p>Aegon, the true Aegon, immediately woke from the trance to the reality of his near death, Kiku struggling with all her new found strength to heal him.</p><p>The fire eventually would, he just needed to endure the pain.  But as he tried to focus on anything but the agony, he remembered looking into his purple eyes expecting to look into Keeno’s.  </p><p>
  <em>What the fuck was that?</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Chapter 26</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>26</p><p>Remoh Shing knealt before her as she sat regally in her portable golden throne.  It was a seat Aegon saw very little of while in Khiana’s service, but a seat fit for the deity she claimed to be.</p><p>His eyes were full to bursting with a naïve devotion only a young virgin man could feel for a woman, goddess or not.  “What brings you before me, young Shing?  I am not blessed with idle time in abundance.”</p><p>“I come to offer myself to you and your cause.”</p><p>“Were you not already mine, your young Honor?”</p><p>“Many have offered their fealty and obedience.  As have I.  But I commit more than just my words, your Holiness.  I devote my deeds, my body, and my mind to ensure you fulfill all your ambitions and desires.”</p><p>“Is that so?  And what use do I have of your body, mind, and deeds, young Honor?  What can a green boy provide the Goddess of Leng?”</p><p>“You speak to me as if I am a child, but we are not so far in age.  I believe it is but one year between our births, and though you are far better in all aspects, I am not just some noble boy playing at rule.”</p><p>“Then what are you?”</p><p>“I am a suitor fully devoted to you and your Kingdom.  I am ready to do whatever it is to prove my love and usefulness.  I come before you today, humbly offering both my life and my heart in order to one day stand beside you, supporting your just and honorable rule.”</p><p>“And what if your love forever remains unrequited?”</p><p>“There is no love nobler than unrequited love.  I ask nothing in return.  I ask nothing of you but your will and that you employ me to manifest it into reality.  If I only ever have the chance to look upon you as you order me to carry out your vision for this great land, then it will be my life’s solemn duty and my life’s greatest honor.”</p><p>“You speak well for a man so green.”</p><p>“At least you acknowledge me a man,” he said, looking up with a slight and handsome grin. </p><p>Aegon could feel Khiana grinning back.</p><p>He jolted awake, sitting up in the makeshift cot whomever was tending to his wounds set up near enough to the fire to continue to heal him.  It was unsettling to think these same men healing him bound Jhat the Red Preist just as close to the same campfire.  Aegon’s allegiance was still as torn as his ashy hooded robe.</p><p>As his eyes adjusted to his own perspective, he tried to make sense of the scene he saw through his captor’s eyes.  He hoped he was free of Keeno, but must not have been, seeing her vision as if it was his own.</p><p><em>Wait. </em>He thought, still groggy from sleep.  <em>Anything she shows me is only meant to further control me.  I must ignore all thoughts of that witch.  </em>His heart still couldn’t help but feel a slight bout of jealousy thinking of the young Yit and his shameless play for the false goddess’ hand.  <em>Though he seems sincere, it’s his one shot at true power.  Honorable or not, it is the strategic play.  Any love he may declare is stained with the ambition and greed of a scheming noble.  Surely, she sees that.  Right?</em></p><p>
  <em>Stop, Aegon!  Why would you even care what or who she does?  She’s used you and may still be.  Nothing she says, or projects can be trusted.  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>But she saved me with the Sheehin.  She opened up to me about her past and her mission.  She says she won’t survive Turrani.  She’s her master’s puppet.</em>
</p><p>Aegon slapped his face to shake himself out of the torturous conflict in his heart and mind.  He needed to focus on something else.</p><p>One of the Azure Guard assigned to attend to him, it seemed, rushed over to him hearing the slap, and asked, “What is it, Your Honor?  What can I do for you?”</p><p>Aegon thought for a moment and responded, “Soku.  As much as a man can drink.”</p><p>--</p><p>After a full skin of the stiffest soku he’d ever tasted, Aegon’s midsection felt numb enough to try and stand.  There was something peculiar about the pain he felt from a wound he thought healed, but after the drink, he almost felt as if nothing happened.</p><p>“Don’t hurt yourself, Your Honor,” the attending Guard warned, “you’ve just been impaled not four hours ago.”</p><p>He rose, slowly, feeling a sharp sting where the blade had entered and exited.  The wound felt as if something still remained inside him, and as he steadied his stance, wobbly from both the soku and recent trauma, he noticed the new and spreading spot of red radiating out from his newly dressed wrap around his midsection.</p><p>“Your Honor, you’ve begun bleeding again,” the Guard said.  “Please.  Lay back down and I will get that young woman.”</p><p><em>Kiku </em>Aegon thought.  <em>Thank you for saving me.</em></p><p>“Where is the woman and Kaono.  I need to speak with them at once.”</p><p>“They must be sleeping in one of the tents.  I didn’t see them after all the commotion settled down, but they were both close to you as you were going through it.”</p><p>“Going through what?” Aegon asked.</p><p>“Whatever episode the poison put you through.”</p><p>
  <em>Poison?</em>
</p><p>Aegon didn’t need to ask the Guard.  The humble attendee may have known something, but Aegon knew Kiku and Kaono would know more.  Plus, with the Red Robes now free, and seemingly the Azure Guard back under the control of Kaono again, he struggled to think of what to do next.</p><p>
  <em>Surely the Red Robes will want to avenge their dead and attack the Empress.  Not only would that prove suicidal, its not the right thing to do.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Yet who are they attacking? Khiana is not the woman all these men here believe her to be.  Maybe allowing the Red Robes to attack IS the right thing.  No.  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Should I explain the truth to these men?  Would they believe me?  </em>
</p><p><em>Likely not.  They’d believe I was still in my </em>episode <em>or whatever that means.  Who would believe their Empress to be an imposter in her skin?  Sometimes, I find it hard to believe myself.</em></p><p>Aegon grabbed his sword belt and checked each of his three sheathed blades instinctively, pulling them just slightly up out of habit. He slipped the black steel of the dragon blades, then the silver gleam of the dirk, out and back into their sheaths, then he turned to the guard.  “I need to speak with them at once,” Aegon repeated.  Men of authority didn’t need to explain their orders to those below them.  “A little blood never bothered me.”</p><p>--</p><p>As he walked through the dark camp towards the tent Kaono and Kiku were in, he noticed a lamp burning from within.  <em>At least they are still awake.  Or at least one of them is.</em></p><p>Aegon ducked under the entrance flap and saw the young Kiku seated upright and reading.  Kaono was curled into his sleeping sack on the ground in a deep but distressed looking sleep.  He appeared to have been tossing back and forth so much, the ground below him was packed down.  And even though he was asleep, he had looked to have aged a decade since the last words they shared in the capitol.</p><p>“I knew you’d get up before your hole healed.  Look at you, bleeding like I’d never patched you up,” the old woman in young skin said, looking up from her parchment.  Behind the sarcasm and disdain in her tone, she couldn’t help but smile with her almond eyes and full pink lips.  As it stretched across her face, she gave up on her hard veneer, saying, “For a time, I thought I’d lose you.”  Her smiling eyes sunk into a flash of sorrow, until her small unwrinkled hand wiped her face back to stern.  “If you died, I would’ve killed you!”</p><p>“Huh, what the fuck, woman?” Kaono mumbled, rolling from his sleep into the conversation.  He looked at Aegon, locked eyes, and awkwardly said nothing until rolling back away.</p><p>“What’s the matter, old man?  You’re not happy to see me?”</p><p>“I’m too tired to speak with you before I can settle my thoughts in my old mind.  I would prefer you not disturb me until at least the morning.”</p><p>Aegon felt an icy chill where there had once been warmth and comradery.  “Seriously, your Honor, what is it?”</p><p>Kaono remained silent.</p><p>“Leave him, my sweet.  Let him rest.”</p><p>“No,” Aegon replied stubbornly, “only a few hours ago I woke to free you all, including him.”</p><p>“Leave it, Aegon.”</p><p>“It just feels as if he’s cross with me when I’ve done nothing but save his ass twice now.”</p><p>Kaono rolled back toward them and sat up.  “You may have stopped assassins from killing me, but since, nothing but the worst has befallen me.  Ever since you arrived into my harbor, into my service, there’s been nothing for me but tragedy and despair.”  His voice raised in volume and intensity, “My grandson was disgraced.  My Guard was butchered.  My daught. . .” he stopped mid-word, growing even angrier.</p><p>“I said I wish NOT to speak with you.  Leave before I say anything more without rest and thought,” he growled, harsher than he ever had at Aegon.</p><p>“Come,” Kiku gestured, her spry frame gracefully standing and reaching out to him with a gentle young hand.  Aegon took it, imagining her now young features to be the same as her once old onces.  They were still Kiku’s in shape and size, but now they were smoother and finer.  He was both attracted to her, and reminded of Keeno.  They had the same almond eyes.  The same high cheek bones.  The same thin straight hair.</p><p>Only Kiku had a way of cutting through, exposing her true self, “With what I want to do to you,” she said in a whisper, “that old dog would roll over and watch.”  He smiled and followed her out of the tent.</p><p>“What’s with Kaono?” Aegon hushed to Kiku as they began walking away from the tent.</p><p>“The lifelong magistrate and leader of Leng Ma was just bound and shackled as a common prisoner by his own guard.  His most hated rival and a vile up jumped snake he personally loathes beat him in a battle of wits and power.  And he’s lost his son to the enemy it seems and those that he loves.”</p><p>“His daughter?” Aegon asked, still unaware of what it meant.</p><p>“Enough of him,” she said, her mouth shifting into a playful grin.  “There are so many more things I’d rather do now that I look like this than discuss that wrinkled old reminder of what I used to look like.”  The red amulet around her neck glowed subtly.</p><p>“Not that I wouldn’t,” Aegon said, “but before we consider the possibility, I woke sweating, bleeding, and still in pain.  Can you fill me in on what’s happened since I fell and then we wake Kaono and figure out what we need to do next?”</p><p>“It’s all about the mission for you, isn’t it?  Unless its about an Empress with long legs and thick tits.”</p><p>“That’s unfair, my love.  You and I both know she enchanted me with more than her looks to make me so easily-”</p><p>“Fucked.  Easily fucked,” she interrupted.  “Old as hells or not, I still was jealous of the bitch.  I told you not to fuck her, and you kept pumping and pumping her like water from the only drinking well for miles.”</p><p>“Seduced, I was going to say.  But you’re right.  In fact, she still has a hold of me, maybe even now.  I don’t know what’s real sometimes.  I thought, before you woke me, I was guarding her litter, forgiven and back in her favor.  You burnt me, and I woke to the prisoner’s tent.”</p><p>“So, you come to us for help as much as you come to annoy the fucking shit out of us?”</p><p>“Yes.”  Aegon admitted.  “I’m atrocious at this shit.”</p><p>“You’re still young yet.  Not as young as I look,” Kiku said, lifting the bottom of her skirts to expose her smooth, tight, yellow legs.  Their shape was fit and seductive.  Aegon couldn’t help but notice.  “But you’ve much to learn.”</p><p>“First, you should know that ReGar is gone.”</p><p>“He survived?”</p><p>She paused.  “He fucking vanished.”</p><p>“I felt the dirk kill him.  I <em>heard </em>it,” he thought, remembering the crunch of the Sheep shin’s skull and spine.</p><p>“He most likely did not live, but his body or corpse or whatever wasn’t there when you fell.  You fell.  You were there.  He fell and was gone.”</p><p>“He spoke once of being a Sheehin,” Aegon said, “what do you know of them?”</p><p>“The Order of Sheehin is little more than lore in our times, but once they were at least worthy of being considered legend.  They were more sorcerers than swordsmen, but they were said to be the original inhabitants from the Mainland chased across the Jade Sea to Leng Yi.  They claimed to be descendant from the last hero, but so do those people up the Bone Mountains, so who’s to say?  Regardless, his body was gone and yours was poisoned.”</p><p>“That’s what the guard by my cot said.  His blade was coated in it?”</p><p>“It’s more complicated than that, I fear.  Poison usually leaves some scent or residue.  There are colorless and tasteless poisons, but those are far too thin to use coated on steel without some sort of mixture, that would produce residue or a scent.  So, I assume, based on his fucking body vanishing during and after the fight, that it was some magic shit.”  <em>Her words are Kiku’s, but those lips are not the flapping wrinkled leather of the old bag.  </em>“That’s why it took so long to use the fire to heal you, I believe.  But then again, I don’t know shit about craziness like this, so I what I think might not be worth shit either, honey.”</p><p>Kiku caught Aegon looking at her for too long and said, “Like what you see?”</p><p>Aegon slightly nodded, “Sure, but you know that’s not usually enough for me to do anything.”</p><p>“Yeah,” she said smiling, “but that was before you got over the hairy one that stole your flower.”</p><p>Aegon’s face reddened.  “I’m sorry.” Kiku responded quickly.  “Sometimes I can’t help myself.  I’m not skilled at sensitivity.”</p><p>They continued to stroll through the dark camp as if there was nothing to fear.  The tent Kiku and Kaono shared was near the edge of the forest. Despite how dark the night was, however, there were enough torches lit around the border for them to see where they were going in most places.  So, the two just kept walking and bantering, both catching up on the vague details since the battle, and playfully quibble, as they always had, but with both parties now young and pleasing to look at.  If he didn’t know any better, Aegon would have thought he was courting the young woman.</p><p>“What am I to do with the Red Robes and this Azure Guard?  The whole of the Dragon Guard must know about ReGar to save Kaono’s reputation, but if the Red Robes attack Khiana anyway, Kaono is guilty again.”</p><p>“You must reach them and stop them.  One way or another.”</p><p>“But there are children among them.”</p><p>“I believe there is one child among them.”</p><p>“One or one thousand.  Children are children.”</p><p>“And women are women.  Men are men.  And war is fucking war, my love.  If those fire worshipping freaks attack again, you better hope by some miracle they’re all killed, including the boy.”</p><p>“How can you be so cold?”</p><p>“How can you be so dull?  You want to know why Kaono doesn’t wish to speak with you?  It’s because you put him in an impossible situation with those zealots.  Khiana may be the enemy, but the enemies of our enemy are not necessarily our friends.  Sending them to him was no kindness, especially not for a man who trusted you.”</p><p>“What would you have done?  Kill them?  Leave them?  It was her order to “clear” the Crossing of them.  It was her order to clear their village of innocents.  It was my choice to decide what to do with their lives, and I spared them.”</p><p>“Yes.  They lived.  But who dies because of it?”</p><p>Aegon heard a raised voice behind them towards the center of camp.  He gripped the handle of the dragon blade on his left hip and scanned for a threat.  The voice sounded alarmed and grew louder with each blast of sound.  It was still too far away to make out what the man was saying.</p><p>Kiku continued, unaware of the other sounds focused on her thoughts, “I don’t know what you should have done, but you probably would have been best served never getting involved with anyone’s business in the first place.  You served Kaono.  You served Khiana.  You were never sworn to protect innocents.”</p><p>“Aren’t I?”  Aegon said, relaxing his stance. </p><p>“We are obligated to ourselves, our station, and our kin.  If we do not belong to a station that is responsible for others, why worry about them?  There’s enough to worry about just surviving this damned jungle.”</p><p>Without a sound, a shadow engulfed the young woman, and Kiku shrieked in pain and fear.  Aegon responded as quickly as he could, pulling the sword free and catching the shadow on its side.  Whatever he hit was solid, and the blade barely sunk before bouncing back toward him.  He heard Kiku fall, moaning in pain, and he looked into the dark to find the shadow.</p><p>“A tiger, Aegon,” she whimpered.  Then, she began moaning again.  Aegon couldn’t see her.  He was focused on what was around him.  Whatever it was, tiger or demon, it was too quiet and too fast for him to be distracted.  He slowly sidestepped toward Kiku to prevent the predator a chance to reclaim its meal.</p><p>It wasn’t hard to find Kiku with the horrible noises she was making.  When he reached her, he crouched down, keeping his eyes on the dark, pivoting around her with his blade drawn.</p><p>The voice from the camp became clearer.  His heart was beating too quickly to translate, but he knew the warning was for what he was facing now.</p><p>As they strolled and flirted, they both lost track of the torches.  They had wandered into part of the perimeter that was poorly lit, and the predator was taking advantage of that.  <em>Aren’t tigers orange?</em></p><p>Whatever this animal was, it was nearly invisible in the dark.  Aegon was barely able to catch its outline, but only as it moved, and only because of how massive it was.  When it bounded away into the foliage, it blended, appearing more as if the jungle grass leapt away than an animal.  And it moved with such grace, Aegon never heard it land from its jump.  It disappeared.  A ghost into the darkness.  <em>Apparently like the Sheep shin, or what’s left of him.</em></p><p>“I’m here, Kiku.  I’m here.”  Aegon looked down to encourage her and quickly assess the damage.  As soon as he peered down, he felt a crushing impact, luckily impeded slightly by the tip of the blade, which absorbed much of the blow and recoiled, nearly slicing Aegon’s ear off.</p><p>He kept his footing, and readied his stance.  He felt the air of another paw come rushing and held the blade tight and straight.  A low, rattling roar sounded as the blow impacted, and the force sent Aegon reeling, tripping onto his back, but the cut from the blade prevented the tiger’s arm from following through with its slash, saving Aegon from the beasts extended claws.</p><p>Aegon pulled out the other dragon blade, and as the tiger pounced, he thrusted them into its chest.  It roared again as its paws landed on Aegon’s shoulders, pinning his arms to the ground, and leaving the blades in the beast’s ribcage. </p><p>The tiger’s head rose, and its mouth opened.  With his arms pinned to the ground and the crushing weight of the beast much too heavy to escape from, Aegon tried to kick his body free.</p><p>It was only the blow from the yelling guard’s ax to the beast’s neck that saved Aegon’s own neck from a mauling.  The enormous cat was black with darker black stripes, and all of its beauty melted down onto him, nearly suffocating him until another guard joined the one with the ax and they were able to roll the carcass off of him. </p><p>He gasped for air, rolled from his back to his chest and pushed himself up to his feet.  <em>Kiku.</em></p><p>Aegon rushed to where the young woman was moaning and crouched down to lift her.  She shrieked, and he could feel a rush of warm wetness on his hands where he gripped her.  “No,” she said.  “No.” </p><p>A guard brought a torch over to her and he could see the damage.  The tiger ripped her stomach open so that he could see organs.  She clutched herself, gasping and moaning, pushing against the open wounds to no avail.  Kiku opened her eyes and looked up to Aegon.</p><p>“Kiss your old teacher once before I’m gone,” she ordered, wincing, and then forcing a smile.</p><p>Aegon couldn’t.  That would mean she’d be dead.  He could save her.</p><p>He had been in the same situation so many times before.  Horribly wounded, losing blood, he just looked around for a flame and healed himself. </p><p>But he couldn’t save everyone.  He could save himself from anything, but as he was learning in Leng quite frequently: He couldn’t save everyone.</p><p>A tear welled in his eye as he knew there was no time.</p><p>He leaned over and kissed the beautiful young woman with passion and kink.</p><p>She kissed back for most of it.  When her lips gave out, he backed away and lost the strength to hold himself up.  To hold himself together.  He broke down in tears.</p><p>He had never learned how to deal with loss.</p><p>No one ever does.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>